Bench boss Kyle Couling takes
over as head coach of junior A Nanaimo Timbermen lacrosse team. PAGE 27
www.nanaimobulletin.com
TUESDAY, JANUARY 20, 2015
VOL. 26, NO. 73
Poverty affects thousands of city’s children
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CHILD POVERTY rate continues to climb as advocates try to find solutions. BY TAMARA CUNNINGHAM THE NEWS BULLETIN
CHRIS BUSH/THE NEWS BULLETIN
Carrie Lundgren, early child development coordinator, left, holds six-month-old Gavin Nelson on her knee while his mom, Melissa Kneeshaw, gives him a spoonful of frozen banana and raspberry smoothie blended during one of Tillicum Lelum’s morning Building Better Babies sessions. Kneeshaw, on maternity leave from her job, said she attends the meetings for recipes and social networking with other mothers.
Breakfast programs help children focus on school BY KARL YU THE NEWS BULLETIN
While the Harbour City is no stranger to child poverty, there are supports to help students overcome the adverse effects. According to Dr. Paul Hasselback, Island Health medical health officer for central Vancouver Island, the children who are living in poverty are less likely to be successful, to complete school and more likely to have school failure issues. A recent report from the Nanaimo-Ladysmith
Schools Foundation, the charity assisting disadvantaged school children in the area, said approximately one in five school children live in poverty in the school district. Among the hurdles faced is attempting to learn with an empty stomach. “No doubt that the child who comes to school, who is hungry, is going to not have the same level of attention,” said Hasselback. “Kids who are hungry and not attentive may be more disruptive. They may have more behavioural issues
in the classroom ... so not only does this become an issue for the child, it becomes an issue for the classroom itself.” When supports, such as breakfast programs, are in place, Hasselback said learning outcomes increase, children are more attentive and behavioural problems decrease. “The whole classroom benefits from having good, quality nutrition breakfast options available to everyone in the classroom,” said Hasselback. With a mandate to sup-
port needy students in the district, one of the schools foundation’s supports include the provision of breakfast programs, according to Crystal Dennison, the foundation’s new executive director. The foundation receives a grant from Breakfast Club of Canada, which allows for breakfast programs at eight schools – Fairview, Park Avenue, Forest Park, Brechin, Nanaimo District Secondary, John Barsby Secondary, Bayview and Georgia Avenue. See ‘FOUNDATION’ /5
Amber Haug, 39, sits at a table in the basement of Tillicum Lelum Aboriginal Friendship Centre, her voice catching as she swipes at tears with her sleeve. She’s living with her ex-boyfriend’s mother and fighting for custody of her three children in government care. She wonders if her children are better off where they are and if it’s selfish to want The News Bulletin looks them back. But at how a lack of income one thing she affects children’s lives. does know: if Today, we look at how she had more poverty impacts children’s money, they’d education. On Thursday, be at home. we’ll look at what’s being Life wasn’t done to alleviate poverty. easy for the family living on social assistance – a reality where choices were made between paying bills or buying groceries and the places they lived were usually dives. At one house, Haug says she caught a rat the size of a dog scurrying through the kitchen. “I don’t have a great paying job. I didn’t stay in school. I didn’t go to college. I can live poor but why do my kids have to suffer?” she asked. “I know my kids go without because of my money.” Haug’s struggles are a familiar story in a city with a chronic problem of child poverty. According to Statistics Canada’s 2011 census, more than 3,000 youngsters in Nanaimo are living in poverty – 21.3 per cent no older than six.
Children in poverty
See ‘SKILL’ /7
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