More and more organizations dedicated to multiple causes are appearing in Quebec, due in particular to the growing involvement of figures from the worlds of sports, arts or business who wish to benefit certain groups from their notoriety. There are institutions with complementary activities that deserve to come together and benefit from this.
Henri-Paul Rousseau founded the Tremplin Santé Foundation 12 years ago with the goal of providing meaningful activities and games to children attending day camps throughout Quebec for their physical and personal development.
The former senior director of the Trust, co-founder of the Montreal Heart Institute (ICM), was appalled by the prevention programs for seniors offered by Dr.s Martin Juneau at ICM.
“I wanted to do the same preventative exercise, but for young people attending summer camps and day camps, by developing a series of games and activities that would stimulate their physical skills and self-esteem,” Henri-Paul Rousseau, now an associate professor at HEC Montreal, tells me.
Thanks to a $2 million grant from the Chagnon Foundation and the Québec en forme Foundation, the Tremplin Santé Foundation (FTS) has hired specialists to develop a series of 200 games each with a specific function, according to the different contexts of a day.
“Every year, we train between 1,200 and 1,400 day camp instructors on our educational games. We are present in 17 regions of Quebec, in more than 900 camps. “We work with municipal recreation centers and have a strong presence in underserved areas,” he said. FTS founder sums up.
Henri Paul Rousseau says it straight away: he was a camp counselor in his youth, and those were the best summers of his life. Play is an excellent way to instill healthy living values in children while preventing them from experiencing the summer slide, i.e. losing what they have learned from the previous school year.
Today the Tremplin Santé program reaches more than 230,000 children during the summer, but it will expand its work by incorporating the Laurent Duvernay-Tardif Foundation, which is also active with young people, by supervising arts and sports initiation programs for elementary school students so that they acquire essential skills for academic success.
“Arts and sports are edutainment activities that allow the transfer of skills and knowledge in an environment different from the classroom environment. We participate in extracurricular activities in about forty schools in eight regions in Quebec.
“Our goal is to expand to about a hundred schools within four years,” explains Florence-Agatha Duby-Moreau, co-founder and co-president of the Laurent Duvernay-Tardif Foundation, an author and curator of contemporary art. .
Expand your reach and resources
Laurent Duvernay-Tardif and Florence-Agatha Duby-Moreau created the LDT Foundation in 2017 by creating a free initiative ready for the Art and Sports Program to Promote Youth Development and the School of Perseverance.
“We have launched the La 6 programmeH In schools in the deprived areas we targeted, but there, by hosting the activities of the Tremplin Santé Foundation, we will have a presence for 12 months a year, we will expand the scope of each program and we will benefit from it “optimizing resources,” sums up Laurent Duvernay-Tardif, co-founder and co-president of the LDT Foundation. .
The former footballer recalls that the educational success of young people depends on many variables, such as leadership, self-esteem and the ability to win or lose and that developing passion allows you to value yourself better.
While listening to Laurent Duvernay-Tardif describe his organization's activities during a business event, Henri-Paul Rousseau became convinced that the two organizations would benefit from joining forces.
“We are combining an after-school program and a summer program. Both institutions focus on games, sports and the arts as a means of integration and academic success. There will be a lot of “Synergy, it's a great example of collaborative philanthropy.”
“This is a great example of cross-fertilization and we are deeply indebted to the legacy passed on to us by Henri Paul. We now hope to have the support of major foundations and major donors that will continue to support educational success throughout Quebec,” emphasizes Florence-Agatha Duby-Moreau.
The annual budget for the Tremplin Santé program is about $1 million, while the LDT Foundation has a budget of $1.3 million to support its programs and training in schools. The new entity will become active on September 30, and its co-presidents intend to make it shine for many years to come.
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