Anchors II Celebration

Times Contributor

 

Struggling to find a way to fit in is a tough journey for some kids. Overcoming obstacles in their lives can just be too much and without someone to help or somewhere to go, they shut down, act out or fall into activity on the dark side of life. The Anchors II outreach program, running out of Crowther Memorial Junior High School, hopes to catch the kids that fall through the cracks in the system and put them back on track.

“We are really the last step. They have so many interventions out there, but these students are the ones that nothing else has worked. Everything had been exhausted. A lot of them have struggled in school and sometimes they just shut down. They just need a place to reset,” said Rita Krugar, Outreach coordinator and teacher.

The Anchors program has been in practise for five years. They hold classes in the Youth Club building. The students must be in Grade 7-9 and are referred by teachers at Crowther because of severe learning difficulties, high risk behaviour problems, or substance abuse. About half of the students are from a group home setting.

The goal is to integrate them back into the school program, with the hope they will continue and graduate.

“It doesn’t take long until they become part of this community and feel that they fit in. They are building peer relationships and they take care of each other. The smaller groups work really well. They don’t fit anywhere else. So when they fit in here, they feel that sense of community,” said Krugar.

Krugar said they focus on the students’ basic needs first, giving them the skills to be successful, because those skills don’t just come naturally to them. A lot of the students come from pretty rough backgrounds.

Students work with family school resource workers and attend group sessions. The students run the canteen in the main school, which provides them with work experience. They also have a mentor program where nursing students from Mount Royal University (MRU) partner with the students and form learning relationships. The Mount Royal Students are in their second year of community nursing. They have done programs like sexual health, nutrition and identifying resources in the community with the Anchors II classes, and take the students on field trips to the MRU.

“While there is a therapeutic component, this becomes much more than a clinical placement; they become passionate about the students and care about their long term outcomes. There are so many positive stories coming back.They are learning from the kids and staff and in the meantime hope to give something back,” said Heather Dirks, MRU nursing instructor, who calls the process ‘service learning.’ 

The students said that forming relationships with the nurses was important, a major factor in their decision to go further with their education.

Jessica Clarke graduated from Anchors II last year and is back in high school at Strathmore High. She said the program made her a better student and helped her understand her anger issues. She was looking forward to seeing her former classmates and the nursing students that made a difference for her.

Krugar said the program has a good success rate, with only a handful of students who don’t integrate back into the school system.

“Everyone has value and everyone has skills. We just need to highlight what they are and get them back on the right path, so they can make meaningful contributions to society,” said Krugar.

The celebration at Crowther Memorial on March 26 was to reconnect and thank special donators from the community for helping them raise $12,000 that was put towards IPads and technology for the students to use.