Taking advantage of the context of the Journées de la perseverance scolaire, the City of Blainville is joining forces with three organizations in the Laurentians dedicated to school perseverance and the social economy as part of the project of the Maison de la perseverance, an establishment that will be located on 70th Avenue West, in the premises formerly housing La Zone.
These are the Omega Center (fight against dropping out of school), the Panda association (academic and social success of people with ADHD) and The School of Being (intergenerational and multidisciplinary activities) who have chosen to share the same roof to pool their expertise.
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“It is the regrouping in the same place of three organizations working in the fields of academic and social perseverance, the fight against dropping out and support for healthy lifestyles. The House of Perseverance will be a living laboratory where synergy will be created and where we can share our human resources and achieve administrative savings. Above all, it will be a nerve center for the social economy in our region, because each dropout represents hundreds of dreams that fly away, ”said Inés Escrivá, Executive Director of the Center Omega.
For its part, the City of Blainville will guarantee the $ 700,000 loan granted by Desjardins to the Maison de la perseverance in order to carry out the development work and will grant it a sum of $ 350,000 that the organization will reimburse under a long-term lease.
“The Maison de la perseverance project is precisely a dream that is now becoming reality. It is a regional project that begins in Blainville. We were looking for a new vocation for this building on 70th Avenue, which once housed La Zone pour les jeunes de Blainville. In a few months, other young people will occupy these premises and they will come from all over the MRC. Thanks to the Maison de la perseverance, this building will come back to life and become a regional center for academic perseverance and social health,” added the mayor of Blainville, Richard Perreault.
Project history and EMD Construction’s contribution
Founded in 1999 and moved to Blainville in 2014, Center Oméga has seen its team grow at the same rate as its clientele, which has prompted its general manager, Inés Escrivá, to look for new premises as soon as possible. The Omega Center could not bring itself to move alone in a larger building and approached the Panda association to take the reflect on the situation further. Inés Escrivá and Isabelle Clément (Panda association) have therefore identified potential partners to finally find the rare pearl: The School of Being.
“The bringing together of these three organizations will make it possible, in particular, to centralize three services in the same place, the sharing of various expertise and experiences, the sharing of premises and the maximization of periods of use. Above all, the Maison de la persévérance will help to enhance the value of the people who attend it and these people will become agents of individual and collective well-being,” added Marie-Lou Crête, vice-president of the School of Being.
To help it carry out its project, the Maison de la Persévérance called on a partner committed to the project: EMD Construction and its president Francis Charron, president and founder of the organization Persévçons ensemble supporting initiatives related to school perseverance. EMD Construction will take care of the fitting out of the Maison de la Persévérance. The preliminary plans were also presented by Isabelle Clément, general manager of the Association Panda Thérèse-De Blainville et des Laurentides. As she mentioned, “The plans provide for exclusive spaces for each of the tenants, shared spaces and rental spaces. These rental and available spaces are very important since this project is intended to be inclusive and open for all organizations of the MRC and other MRCs in the Laurentians whose activities in the territory are related to the mission of La Maison de la persévérance and require a space “.
Francis Charron, president of Bâtimo and vice-president of EMD construction, is thrilled by this project, which is the continuation of many of his actions in recent years. Referring to the African proverb “It takes a whole village to raise a child”, Mr. Charron says: “More than ever, with COVID-19, our young people will need the village to get the help and the necessary resources. in order to get out of this without too much damage. The Maison de la persévérance scolaire et sociale will be a favorite place to develop concerted actions that promote academic perseverance. We are therefore proud to contribute to the success of this project”.
As for the schedule for the work and for taking possession of the premises, they should begin at the end of the spring so that the organizations are ready to welcome the young people at the start of the next school year.
Mayor Richard Perreault said he was very enthusiastic about this mobilizing project for Blainville and the region: “We owe the leadership of three women the culmination of a dream that will certainly lead to the realization of other dreams, namely those of young and old who want to succeed in their lives and do their best to positively change their society. The City of Blainville is very proud to be associated with this dream which has come true today,” he concluded.
