Clinic makes waves in Parc- Ex
Centre l’ Extension aims to help children with learning and health- related difficulties in one of Montreal’s poorest and most multiethnic neighbourhoods
Of the 180 community improvement projects pitched at the Je vois Montréal conference and now in the works, just one of them mentions Parc- Extension by name.
That would be Centre l’Extension, a new clinic offering remedial education and health services developed by the Université de Montréal — specifically, by its dean of educational sciences, Louise Poirier.
Poirier conceived of the idea as a way for her students to have a place to gain experience in their chosen domains, in a location that could benefit from low- cost services.
“I was named dean in 2010 and before that I already had this project in mind, but I was not in a position to do much about it. But as soon as I became dean, I put that project forward,” Poirier said.
To say the centre has had lean beginnings is an understatement. It currently inhabits a pair of classrooms at the Barclay elementary school in the heart of Parc- Extension. Currently, 10 master’s of education students are helping 10 elementary schoolchildren with learning difficulties like dyslexia.
Poirier studied the neighbourhood for years, working with its young students to better identify their needs. She also served on the boards of different community organizations and met with people from all walks of life.
The clinic’s mission is twofold: to provide both educational and health- related services to children living in an underprivileged part of the city.
Poirier calls it orthopedagogy, which can best be described as a specialized and holistic approach to working on different but interconnected learning and health problems. Eventually the centre will expand to include dentistry and optometry services, and perhaps one day even medical care and other services, to all students and their families.
Mary Deros, longtime Parc- Extension city councillor, says those kinds of services are sorely lacking in the area.
“Most of these families are fairly newcomers to Montreal and they don’t have a family doctor, they don’t have pediatricians. So these families end up going to clinics and hospitals, and not even at times — so the parents don’t know if their children have any needs,” Deros said.
Deros knows those realities firsthand. Born in Greece, she came to Montreal with her family when she was a child. She has lived in ParcEx since 1969.
“I grew up here, I got married here, I brought up my three children here. I still live in the same house,” Deros said.
She says she discovered she had a hearing impairment more than a decade after an intense fever damaged nerves in her ears. Prior to the discovery, she had for years solved her hearing problem by sitting at the front of the classroom.
So when Poirier brought her the idea for Centre l’Extension, she was thrilled to give children in the neighbourhood greater access to individualized care.
“These children will have the advantage of being monitored, looked after on a regular basis, and this clinic within the school will be able to take care of those needs,” Deros said.
Centre l’Extension as it is, however, is not capable of handling much more than it has already taken on.
“We need a bigger place, and that’s what Je vois Montréal will probably ( do), help us find financing for our place and space, so we can give a broader spectrum of help to the children,” Poirier said.
The services the centre currently provides are nearly free.
“We don’t want the parents to feel it’s charity, so we are asking for a symbolic $ 5 an hour, but I’m not sure we’re getting that,” Poirier said.
Phase II of her project would have Centre l’Extension in its own space, with 200 students of different disciplines working out of the educational and medical clinics. She envisions a summer camp where children would learn to play musical instruments and get into sports.
So far, no major funding has come of its Je vois Montréal experience, even though it is moving forward and is now considered a Je fais Montréal project. More than 1,000 people attended the Je vois Montreal conference at city hall on Nov. 17. Last month, Mayor Denis Coderre announced the creation of a followup agency called Je fais Montreal that will help the projects move forward.
“We cannot, especially these days, do it all by ourselves. We are putting in a lot of time, a lot of effort, but we cannot do that all by ourselves. We need support from the community,” she said. Some money has come in from an order of nuns and from musical band Simple Plan’s charitable foundation, she says.
In the meantime, Poirier knits. She says her university knitting club has raised $ 4,500 for the centre so far by selling knitted wares.
Although she would like to see the project fully evolve sooner rather than later, Poirier believes good things come to those who wait. She says years of working with Inuit people have taught her a saying she likes to remind herself of in times like these: “Patience is not a waste of time.”