Near North District School Board (NNDSB) Laurentian Learning Centre (LLC) graduate Allie Travale credits the alternative school with “saving my life in many ways,” and has thought about giving back to the school ever since graduating in 2015. It wasn’t until four years later that an opportunity to do just that presented itself.
Travale, who had excelled academically throughout school, struggled with severe anxiety and depression, which began to harm her education.
“My attendance counsellor, Erin Fitzgerald, played a pivotal role in getting me into the LLC. At the LLC, I was provided with an environment that was flexible, caring, non-judgmental and supportive. The teachers were (and are still) all amazing people. My peers were just youth like me, struggling for a wide variety of reasons, trying to get through school and life,” Travale said. “It creates a feeling of safety being around people who understand struggling in their own ways. The smaller class sizes also helped a lot with my anxiety.
“I grew so much in my time attending the LLC. I was able to work through a lot of the anxiety and depression slowly but surely, and part of that growth came from the LLC environment, the available supports, and the consistent encouragement,” Travale said. “I began to see that maybe I could still graduate and live a life worth living after graduation.”
Soon after graduation, Travale dreamed of giving back to the school and assisting future students as she was assisted. “I wanted to be a part of that helpful environment for other young people in situations, or mental places, that I could relate to. It became a dream goal of mine,” Travale said.
An opportunity to realize that dream presented itself in 2019 when Travale and project partner Chelsea Reid learned of the Laidlaw Foundation’s Youth Action Fund, a grant stream focused on youth with “lived experience” in either the education, child and family services or justice system. The grantors specifically wanted youth to lead the project, helping other youth underserved by one or more of those systems.
Travale and Reid then formed C-ACE (Creative Arts-Based Civic Engagement), which aimed to integrate art into the school, funding everything needed for the classes and facilitating the art classes alongside a teacher.
“We hoped to increase attendance, raise student confidence as well as access to self-expression, increase food budget support, incorporate cultural components, and increase credit achievement levels, thereby increasing overall graduation rates,” Travale said. “We also hoped that the results and new art supplies at the school would lead to regular arts credits being offered at the school when our grant ended.”
With assistance from local non-profit N2M2L (Near North Mobile Media Lab), the team’s grant application was accepted in early 2020.
Inspired by their success, Travale began thinking of the next project to take on.
“A second grant project idea came to me in the Summer of 2021. Our grant was set to end at the end of 2021/beginning of 2022, and I was thinking ahead with hopes to apply again,” Travale said. “I was looking for a way to expand what we had done into something even more impactful and beneficial for the students and the school. I knew that we could go even deeper into aiding the wellness impact for students.”
From this desire to do more came the Ways to Wellness Project (WTWP), which supports holistic wellness endeavours by helping to facilitate physical education, general health, and mental wellness opportunities at LLC.
“Through WTWP, media and visual arts are being woven into the school offerings, along with civic engagement opportunities and activities supporting the crucial multi-faceted aspects of well-being,” Travale said. “This includes Indigenous cultural components, such as the creation of the Nishnaabemwin/Anishinaabemowin Language Deck (ALD), which is a key component of the project. The language deck is a bilingual educational flashcard deck designed to encourage and enable people everywhere to understand and speak Anishinaabemowin.”
“The ALD has been an incredible part of this project that LLC students participated in, aiding in language revitalization and cultural pride,” Travale said. “The language deck was reviewed by Nipissing First Nation’s Language Committee, with distribution being supported by Anishinabek Nation to connect with First Nation communities across the province. Other spaces with a variety of culturally relevant programming have received decks as well. We had close to 20 artists onboard for the deck artworks, whose Anishinaabe heritage spans a large geographic region along the North Shore of the Great Lakes. The Seven Sacred Teachings cards artworks were created digitally by LLC and Nbisiing Secondary School students alongside elders/cultural facilitators who spoke about the teachings with the students, which was beautiful.”
The WTWP has also provided physical education equipment, supported cooking classes and food access for students, continued support for art classes, supported the school garden,purchased books and a variety of other supplies, and provided opportunities for field trips and guest speakers/workshop facilitators.
LLC Vice-Principal Lisa Spencer said Travale understands that students need a bit of extra time, extra encouragement and extra support to reach their goals.
“Allie is a creative soul who sees the best in everyone, accepts individuals for who they are and seeks to meet them where they are. Allie contributes an artist’s touch and a big heart to each project she contributes to,” Spencer said. “She comes to LLC as often as she can to work with staff and students to build a community of collaboration and comfort for everyone to learn and experiment. She adds value to the aspects of LLC that students love the most: art, experiences, mentorship, hobbies, community and, of course, learning. Allie is a strong mentor for the students at LLC, and everyone benefits from her gentle presence and determined direction.”
“Access to alternative schooling is incredibly important for youth with lived experience and youth who are struggling. Often, these youth are the ones who fall through the cracks, possibly ending up on a less than favourable path, or worse,” Travale said.
“When these students can learn and grow in a smaller school where alternative approaches, wellness focuses, uplifting teachers, and flexibility are all prioritized, it creates a critical bridge to a brighter future for them,” she added. “Hope and vision can change the entire way that we live our lives, and sometimes we need help getting into that type of mindset.
“We can’t eliminate all of the struggles or unique reasons that youth may need a school like the LLC, but we can do our part to support spaces that help pave better paths forward for those in need. In doing so, we are ensuring that these spaces can continue fostering deeply meaningful transformations for youth, creating lifelong impacts, and ultimately shaping a brighter future for both the youth and our society as a whole,” said Travale.