Increasing Requests for Help with Back-to-School Costs

Mélissa Gélinas

With the start of the school year fast approaching, more and more families in the region will be using Centraide Outaouais' Back-to-School program.

Created in 1995, the program's goal is to provide new school supplies at a reduced price to children from disadvantaged families. Since its inception, more than 57,000 children have benefited from this assistance. The program is co-managed by some 20 neighbourhood and family organizations in the Outaouais region. "People must register with the organizations that will be responsible for delivering the services," explained Cédric Tessier, Executive Director of Centraide Outaouais. Several of them will set up a "sharing store" where families can go to shop for their school supplies at 25% of the price. This year, with the rising cost of living, the organization expects to help nearly 2,500 people. According to Cédric Tessier, there has been a sustained increase in the number of applications for the program since 2021.

Across the Outaouais region, the Hull sector appears to be the area with the highest rate of extreme poverty. "This is the area where we see the most children being helped," said Tessier. "We can also see pockets of poverty in slightly wealthier areas, such as the Aylmer sector, and in all the regional county municipalities in the region."

Single-parent families and families with only one parent working appear to be those who rely most on financial assistance. "These are people who are active in society, who contribute, but who are unable to make ends meet because of ever-rising prices and wages that aren't keeping up," he said.

For more information on the program: https://centraideoutaouais.com/que-fait-on/programmes/retour-en-classe.