The New Horizons Project

Project Rationale:

The population of the Outer Gulf Islands in British Columbia (Pender, Mayne, Galiano, and Saturna) is aging. There are relatively fewer school-aged children every year, and opportunities for school aged children and senior citizens to interact and form the constructive relationships that infuse and support healthy communities are diminishing.

Schools on the four Southern Gulf Islands are experiencing slow but steady enrolment decline and, as a consequence of that decline, they find it increasingly difficult to offer Fine, Visual and Performing Arts and Applied Skills Programs, particularly in the Middle Years where students aged 12-15 typically experience, in larger schools, “Electives” programming.

We believe the growing population of retirees and semi-retirees on these four islands represents an increasing wealth of experience, knowledge, skills and wisdom that might be utilized to enrich school programming at the Middle Years level. We believe that, by connecting generations in meaningful work where each participant can both offer and be offered something of value, the community can only grow stronger as a result.

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Schools can’t do it alone. 

If we truly want to provide the best learning opportunities for our kids, education needs to be more like a three-legged stool – with the structural support of home, school and community all working together. But here’s the thing. If all three legs are strong and equal, the stool is perfectly stable and functional. If one of the legs is damaged or removed, the stool can’t hold any weight. It can’t do its job, no matter how much we try to patch and reinforce the remaining legs.


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