POSITIVE INFLUENCES
High school students and elementary school students play a game Tuesday during the Growing Young Movers program at the mamaweyatitan centre. The program offers activities to younger kids while high school students get paid for their efforts.
Through a new program offered at her school, Grade 12 student Shanaiah Geddes is building life skills she believes will help her achieve her goal of becoming a city police officer while also being a positive role model for younger kids in her community.
Plus, she is getting paid for her efforts.
Three times a week, Geddes helps lead an after-school program at the mamaweyatitan centre run by the non-profit organization Growing Young Movers (G.Y.M.). The program gives kids in North Central a place to go after school where they are handed a snack, given gym shoes if they don’t have any and get active playing games.
But for high school students at Scott Collegiate, the program also offers the chance to build relationships with kids in their community and have their first job.
“I didn’t realize how much energy I needed to run around with kids and play, especially with emotional energy for that program. So it’s challenging, but fun,” said Geddes, who is a mentor with the program.
Scott Collegiate offers four class “pathways” for students: Food and Hospitality, Media, Construction and — just added this year through a partnership with G.Y.M. — Leadership. Each of these pathway programs give students an opportunity to develop hands-on skills through specific classes in their chosen field.
Brian Lewis, executive director of G.Y.M., started running an after-school program on Mondays last year out of the mamaweyatitan centre, and hired a handful of students from Scott Collegiate to help him run the program. But he wanted a way to directly connect the work the students were doing with their schooling.
He pitched the idea to Regina Public Schools, and the division took the idea and turned it into the Leadership Pathway at Scott, hiring Lewis as a halftime teacher to help teach the necessary classes. After school, Lewis switches roles and runs the G.Y.M. programs.
“We want the younger ones to see Indigenous youth from their community — sometimes their cousins or their older siblings or friends of friends in school — holding down a job, committing to a job and just being the good kids they are,” said Lewis.
“These kids are leaders and they know they are. They just need the opportunity to be leaders, so that’s what we’re offering them.”
As one of the first students hired by G.Y.M. to help with the programming last year, Geddes said she has seen huge personal growth by taking on the responsibility of a leader and getting to know the kids.
“You’re pretty nervous and you don’t talk very much when you first start. But then once you start getting to know the kids, it feels just like a big whole family,” she said.
Once you start getting to know the kids, it feels just like a big whole family.
“I grew in patience towards kids. I kind of used to be very impatient when a child wasn’t following a rule or whatever, but now I just brush it off ... Now I know how to take a breather and actually try to help with the situation.”
It’s not just the students noticing the changes in themselves. Scott Collegiate staff are noticing it as well. Principal Mike Tomchuk said he has seen dramatic changes since the program began.
“In the short time that we’ve been working together (with G.Y.M.), kids that may not have had the best attendance are now coming to school every day, earning a paycheque ... and (being) the leaders to community kids, potentially brothers and sisters. It’s remarkable,” he said.
Students get high school credits for taking the Leadership Pathway classes, and they also get paid by G.Y.M. for the work they do with the after-school programs. Currently, Lewis has 14 students on his payroll, and he hopes to see this number increase as more students get involved.
Through the program, Geddes also hopes to give younger kids in North Central a positive example to look up to instead of only seeing crimes or gangs.
“They see us instead and, you know, the kids want to look up to that and be like us, helping and caring for other people,” she said.