An outdoor adventure program in Powell River with ties to the French school district has closed down, prompting another local company to begin offering its own French-language programs.
Powell River-based Centre for Leadership and Adventure in Nature (CLAN) program, run out of École Côte du Soleil, has been closed since the fall of 2011. CLAN offered outdoor adventure programs for French-speaking youth. The organization hired French Canadians from around the nation and brought them and the participants to Powell River for programming.
CLAN operated with ties to Conseil scolaire francophone de la Colombie-Britannique, or School District 93. The decision to close CLAN came from its own board of directors. Representatives from the school district sat on the board.
According to Pierre Claveau, director of public relations for School District 93, CLAN closed because it was not financially feasible to keep it operating. The expenses associated with bringing participants and employees to Powell River were limiting the program’s clientele and costing too much. Claveau said the program’s main client had become the school district and for that reason it made sense to stop the program and integrate outdoor French programs with the district.
Although CLAN has been dissolved Claveau said the programs it ran will continue to be offered. The district envisions a mobile outdoor adventure program that can run out of various locations in BC at different times, he said, making it more accessible to youth from other regions. Equipment from the Powell River program will be redistributed to use in the province-wide program.
“So the CLAN itself, as an organization, had to be dissolved. But the CLAN didn’t disappear, it’s kind of a paper thing,” said Claveau. “We will absorb it at the Conseil scolaire francophone and we will just maintain the activities and continue it.”
Claveau does not believe anyone was laid off as a result of the closure, except for some of the French-Canadian employees brought in to run the programs. Former CLAN director Guy Chartier is no longer employed by the district or CLAN, but Claveau said that is due to his contract expiring. Chartier said he could not comment on the situation.
“It is one of the best experiences a kid can have,” said Claveau. “No kids came out of there ever not changed by the experience. This was a great thing and we want to maintain this and this will continue.”
Terracentric Coastal Adventures has announced it is now offering French-language programming in the Powell River region. The outdoor adventure company, which is based out of Lund, described its French programming in a press release as picking up where CLAN has left off. Even some former CLAN staff “have been hired to assist in program delivery and design,” reads the press release.
“Continuing to offer French-language adventure programs and wilderness trips to students,” said Christine Hollmann, Terracentric director, “is part of our commitment to seeing Powell River continue to develop as a ‘destination classroom’ for outdoor education students and teachers from around the globe.”
Claveau said School District 93 is not associated with Terracentric.
