As Ottawa students prepare to head back to school, a local non-profit is helping ease some of the financial pressure on families by providing 1,000 backpacks filled with school supplies to youth across the city.
Progress for Mental Health marks the fourth year of Project Saade, an initiative designed to distribute backpacks and school supplies to underserved youth through schools and community organizations in Ottawa.
The project is also part of a broader Ontario-wide backpack initiative led by PIE education, which Barrie Mayor Alex Nuttall co-founded in 2012. PFMH joined the initiative in 2023 alongside the John Tavares Foundation, using donations locally to purchase backpacks and school supplies to donate them locally.
Over those four years, the organization has provided backpacks to more than 4,000 young people, Amel Storseth, a founder and board member of Progress for Mental Health.
“It’s the fact that we have touched over 4,000 lives, young lives in Ottawa and Ottawa community,” Storseth said.
“Returning to school is an exciting time, but for some people, it can also be a nervous time and a stressful time—especially for those that come from different backgrounds.”
Storseth said the demand for school supplies has become increasingly apparent as families grapple with higher cost of living.
Four years ago, some community organizations would tell the group they only needed 50 or 100 backpacks. This year, Storseth said organizations were prepared to take as many as PFMH could provide.
“Times are tougher for people,” she said. “The cost of living has increased, people are struggling more.”
Project Saade holds a personal significance to Storseth. She helped create the initiative in memory of her late brother.
“To be a person from immigrant parents who you know came to this country with nothing, only to give themselves and their kids a better life, and then now to give back to other immigrant families is honestly just a blessing, and I’m humble to do so,” she said.
Some of the organizations that Project Saade has reached includes the Boys and Girls Club, Youth Empowerment Centre, local mosques and schools across the region.
Christian Lapalme, Superintendent of the French-Catholic School Board (CECCE), said the initiative not only eases pressure from families, but also help fill a need for newcomers arriving in Ottawa.
“Cost of living is one thing, but obviously immigration is another,” Lapalme said, noting that many newcomers arrive in Canada with only essentials and may not have everything their children need to begin school.
“Nothing is worse than a kid not having a backpack and being laughed at, so we’re talking about mental health,” he said.
The CECCE received 200 backpacks this year to distribute among 17 schools, covering students from grade 3 to 12.
“Immigration is one key component that we’re trying to help,” Lapalme said.
*iPolitics and Ottawa Compass publisher Brian Storseth is also a founder and board member of Progress for Mental Health, the organization behind Project Saade.
