The LDWC is planning for September
Operation Backback – Year 4
For a fourth year, the Lennoxville & District Women’s Centre, in collaboration with the Sherbrooke Record, will be raising funds to purchase school supplies for local children. Back-toschool shopping takes a huge toll on families’ finances. According to a study done by the Huffington Post, school supplies for a fifth grader in Canada average $108 per child. This does not include the cost of shoes and clothing, extracurricular fees or miscellaneous costs (transport, food etc.). According to an Angus Reid poll of more than 1,500 Canadians published by Global News in August 2017, parents can expect to pay more than $880 per family for back to school shopping. Operation Backpack is a campaign that strives to alleviate the inundation of costs that come with the arrival of a new school year.
The report by the Public Health Director (CIUSSS): Responding Better to the Needs of the Linguistic and Cultural Communities in Estrie states that, in Estrie as in Québec, there are more English speakers than French speakers in the low-income bracket among those aged 18 to 64 years (22.4% vs. 15.5% in Estrie) . In the last few years, we have seen a significant rise in parents struggling to sustain their families on their current income, adding to the vulnerability of English speaking children in our region. The proportion of English-speaking children in Estrie who have a vulnerability is greater than that of their counterparts in the rest of Québec, and that, in every domain of development .
The LDWC strives to help families in our community in a number of ways, and Operation Backpack is one of them. Thanks to a dedicated committee of volunteers, we are able to collect all of the supplies needed by every grade. Families are referred by the school and community partners to the LDWC who then offers them a large portion of the supplies they need to send their children to school.
The committee is especially focused on students moving from elementary to high school in order to provide support during their transition. In the last 3 years, Operation Backpack has equipped local children with approximately 280 backpacks filled with school supplies.
With your help, we hope to continually expand this program and reach a greater number of students in need for the Fall of 2018.
If you are a member of a group or organization working to improve the quality of life for others in the community, you are invited to contact Sharon Mccully at The Record to be added to the list of contributors for this weekly column at 819-569-6345.