Spotlight on...Youth and Literacy

Peer to Peer Project a Success in Surrey

Out in Surrey, a different kind of learning is taking place in the basement of the South Westminster Learning Centre. A group of young adults meets daily to read, write, tutor and help each other in a one-of- a kind “family” literacy program. They are participants in the Surrey School District’s Youth to Youth Peer Literacy project, now in its second year of federal funding under the Literacy Corps program. The program is administered through the Adult Literacy Cost Shared Program.

Youth to Youth Peer Literacy draws students mainly from the Whalley and Bridgeview sections of Surrey. Students are also referred from the learning centres in Cloverdale, North Surrey and Guildford. The South Westminster Learning Centre is one of five learning centres, in the Surrey S.D., which each year enroll more than 1100 at risk youth between 15 and 19.

Jean Rasmussen and Nancy Richardson visited the Learning Centre recently to get a first hand look at the program. Lee Weinstein, Principal of South Westminster, gathered a group of students from the program for an informal conversation in a comfortable and friendly space filled with work tables, books, a computer and a portable CD player. Wanda Allan, a Youth Worker with the Surrey School District, who teaches at the Centre two days a week, and Maybelline Anaskan, the aboriginal student liaison, joined us.

Youth to Youth Peer Literacy is a unique program that helps students, who are having difficulty in the mainstream school system, develop self confidence and achieve academic success. They are encouraged to read books that interest them, study and work at their own pace, and get help from each other.

Wanda explains that the program benefits “kids who are experiencing chaos in their home life — added to the usual adolescent and academic chaos. Sometimes the last grade level they understood was grade 4 or 5, then they get into grade 8 and feel overwhelmed. Then they feel stupid. Here, they take baby steps — they can move forward and advance at their own pace up through the grade levels. They have established a relationship of trust, caring and confidence.”

“The difference is, it’s not just about academics here. Each person is totally unique — totally an individual. A student is a person first. No one here (among the staff) can ignore a kid’s problems when they go home. It’s like being part of a family. Like a family, it’s reciprocal.”

“When you realize that kids can show you something — that they can teach you — it’s a wonderful thing. This may never have happened in their life before. It becomes a trade-off. Here it’s, you teach me something and I’ll teach you something —it’s a win-win situation.”