Finding summer camps in French can become a “headache” for Ottawa residents. But two organizations, threatened with closure in the fall of 2023, have managed to maintain their activities.
In Ottawa, activities organized by the municipality fill up very quickly, in French as in English, tells the Duty Marie-Ève du Montier, who failed to obtain a place in three years for her two children. “It’s really a race against time. You still have to be pretty lucky. »
“This year I didn’t even try, because it’s too much of a hassle. Being able to have my two children in the same day camp, the same weeks, in French, where I would like them to be, it’s almost stressful. »
His children will therefore spend part of their summer in Quebec, on the other side of the Ottawa River. A way for these two young people from the west of the federal capital — who study in French — to rub shoulders with students whose first language is that of Molière. And have fun at lower costs.
Camps with more “nested” themes will be followed in English. If there are “perhaps” comparable options in French, Mme du Montier explains that they are often too far away, concentrating instead in Orléans, far from their homes. And other possibilities are difficult to find. “It’s a lot of blind research. »
An alternative option to Patro d’Ottawa
Francis Michaud-Charron is well aware of this lack of services in French. Camp options in Lower Town, a “very French-speaking” and “more disadvantaged” neighborhood, are “very limited.” And they almost diminished in the fall of 2023, when Patro d’Ottawa, blaming the suspension of part of its funding by the City, announced that it would have to cease its activities.
“I am a former Patro youth. I grew up in Lowertown. This is my home. So, when I saw that the Patro was in the process of restructuring, then closing its doors, it really did something to me,” says the co-founder of Au gré du vent. To “offer quality camps at low prices” to local residents, the organization decided to rent the Patro d’Ottawa premises this summer and hold its own camps there.
For now, Au gré du vent is working to make itself better known within the community. “We kept animators who worked for the Patro last year. […] We hope that for parents, it brings them a level of comfort, to see faces again,” says Mr. Michaud-Charron.
However, residents will have to wait before being able to benefit from Patro’s programs again, including Le p’tit Bonheur, which is aimed at adults with special needs. “The Patro, for the moment, does not plan to offer any programs until its restructuring process is completed,” wrote to Duty its spokesperson, Stéphane Émard-Chabot, specifying that the “relationship [avec] Au gré du vent is one of owner-tenant.
Options for young people on the autism spectrum
In Orléans, on the other hand, summer camps will be offered for French-speaking children on the autism spectrum. The Franco-Ontarian Autism Society (SFOA) also had its head underwater last fall, due to lack of funding. The management, then the board of directors, had resigned, but a group of parents quickly organized themselves to take over on a voluntary basis.
“It was a priority for the board of directors that the summer camp be set up again, and that is what was done,” says the president, Carol Jolin, who joined the board in January. “Young people need activities and parents need some respite. »
Proof of its success, the camp aroused “a lot, a lot of interest”, i.e. 33 registrations in “the space of a week”, adds the former president of the Assembly of the Francophonie of Ontario. The Sam-dit-turbo activity, an intensive group speech therapy program, also “filled up very, very quickly”. “For parents, it’s certain that it meets a huge need,” says Mr. Jolin.
But it is too early to say that SFOA has resolved its financial problems. “We’re not out of the woods,” he says. What we asked was that we be able to have recurring funds, which would allow us to[embaucher] a general director and an administrative assistant, and, at that time, we would be able to move forward and offer more programs. »
The SFOA does not currently have the necessary resources to “get the camp back on its feet for older young people,” deplores Mr. Jolin, who makes it one of his objectives to achieve over the next year. , because “we know that once they leave school, at 21, there is absolutely nothing offered to them”.
This report is supported by the Local Journalism Initiative, funded by the Government of Canada.