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6 | OUR ESPOUSED HEALTH AND WELL-BEING NEEDS / 6.2 CHILDREN (KINDERGARTEN TO GRADE SIX)
SOCIAL ENVIRONMENTS The Boys’ and Girls’ Club is very active and held in high regard The Boys’ and Girls’ Club plays a significant role in the lives of children ages five and up, who live in and around Wabana. This program offers a number of key programs focused on social skills, recreation, tutoring, help seeking, anger management and so on. The program is very well received in the community by parents and professionals alike. “I am familiar with the one here and the one in St. John’s. Here they are always supportive. They are always wonderful. I find they are a very close organization and looked upon very well by community members.” The Boys’ and Girls’ Club is funded through a foundation, fundraising and partnerships. On Bell Island, the Boys’ and Girls’ Club draws support from the Town of Wabana and the Kiwanis Club. The club also has an active and generous alumni in Fort McMurray, Alberta and in Cambridge, Ontario.
The RCMP reach out to children in the community The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) offers two programs DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) and PALS. (Police At Local Schools). DARE focuses on children in grades five and six. DARE is a comprehensive prevention education program designed to equip school children with the skills to recognize and resist social pressures to experiment with tobacco, alcohol, drugs and violence. The RCMP also runs PALS. This informal program focuses on identifying and eliminating bullying and harassment. The PALS Life Skills 101 aims to reduce conflicts at school and help students complete their studies and become positive role models for their peers.
Parents need to be encouraged to get involved Traditionally, parents become more involved in their children’s lives through parent-teacher associations (PTA) now called School Councils, a Block Parent Association or the Big Brother / Big Sister Association, and so on. As is the case in many small rural communities across Newfoundland and Labrador, these particular organizations do not exist on Bell Island. There is a School Council at St. Augustine’s but presently it isn’t an effective vehicle for involving parents. As parents noted, “You have to take it on your own self to be involved at school” … “I will ask the teachers if they want any help (with the lunch program)” … “I am involved with the school with my kids, but it is up to individual persons to say they will be involved.”
BELL ISLAND HEALTH AND WELL-BEING NEEDS ASSESSMENT: PHASE ONE | 2006
Again, as seen in many small communities, parents noted that the same persons assumed the same executive positions in extra curricular clubs, year after year, because other parents were not coming forward.
PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENTS Recreational resources are readily available There are numerous organized activities for children in this age group to do on Bell Island: figure skating, hockey, softball and piano lessons in addition to the sports programs offered in the school and at the Boys’ and Girls’ Club. However, as the number of children continues to decline, coaches have had to come up with new strategies for pulling together teams Families have and ensuring that their children everything to do stay active and involved in recreation. “Trying to coach four or with health. Young five kids gets boring, so this year children develop we are affiliated with Conception Bay South.” most of their strat-
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PERSONAL HEALTH AND COPING SKILLS Children need to see their parents modeling healthy behaviours Some parents on Bell Island feel very strongly about the need for parents, generally, to act as better role models for their children when it comes to at-risk behaviours like smoking, obesity, drinking, gambling and exposure to violence. “If we want a smoke free population, we have to start with education and awareness and work our way through that. We have the young kids now knowing that smoking is bad. From Grade one up to Grade five or six we are educating the kids but we are not doing anything to educate their parents. The children learn for six hours a day that smoking is awful and they are going home and watching mother and dad smoke for another six hours and
egies for interacting with their environment within the family. It is also within the family that most adults make important decisions, regarding health-related behaviors, such as dietary habits, or taking time for physical exercise. Family members usually exhibit similar attitudes and behaviour with regard to smoking, physical activity and eating habits POTVIN & EISNER, 1995
VERLÉ HARROP | VHARROP@ALUM.MIT.EDU
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