It’s the first of its kind in Toronto and now it’s been given some help from the provincial government.
The Beyond 3:30 Program has a mission – to engage middle school children in active, healthy activities between the hours of 3:30 and 8 p.m., Monday to Friday. The program is a partnership between the TDSB’s Model Schools for Inner Cities initiative, the Toronto Community Foundation and the Toronto Foundation for Student Success.
Margarett Best, Ontario’s Minister of Health Promotion, was recently at Brookview M.S. in North York to announce new funding for programs like Beyond 3:30, through the province’s After-School Initiative. As part of the Ontario government’s 2008-09 budget, $10 million of annual funding was earmarked for programs aimed at boosting physical activity, healthy eating, nutritional eating and personal health and wellness education. Some of this funding is aimed directly at programs like Beyond 3:30 that are operated during evenings when under-supervised children are the most vulnerable.
Brookview principal Karl Subban says students in his school benefit greatly from organized after-school activities. “I know from personal experience that our highest-risk youth receive huge benefits from having a constructive place to spend their time during the evening hours,” Subban says. “We need to give these kids a hand-up by offering them the chance to learn new skills and abilities and contribute positively to their community.”
Research has shown that middle school children are at the most risk of becoming involved in unconstructive activities if they don’t have a safe place to go after school. Beyond 3:30 offers a balance of activities that engage and educate youth in a fun manner, giving them an opportunity to develop social skills and increase their self-esteem.
“By creating a safe, healthy, fun and educational environment through these after-schools programs, we can ensure youth in low-income communities are not alienated from their communities,” Subban says.
The program has a focus on healthy living, with a large physical activity component, as well as food preparation skills and nutritional studies.
