N.B. non-profit for children with dyslexia to lose space set to become shelter

The director of Children’s Dyslexic Learning Centre N.B. said she learned her organization would have to vacate the Moncton Lion’s Community Centre in a two-week timespan via media reports.

The Moncton Lion’s Community Centre will become a homeless shelter in January, with heated tents being installed in the parking lot as makeshift shelters in late December.

“The movers are coming Tuesday. We don’t know where we’re going to go. We don’t know whether we’re going to pack and go to storage or we don’t know whether we’re going to pack and take us to a new location,” Shelley Toudjian told Global News in an interview.

She and the board are frantically looking for an affordable option, which is proving difficult in the current real estate market.

The non-profit currently pays $900 all included to rent the space, and will be paying $3,000 to $5,000 in moving costs, depending on whether it moves to a new location or moves its supplies into storage.

Cynthia Holt, who volunteers as a tutor with the organization, told Global News on Wednesday that repetition and routine is a crucial part of helping children with dyslexia.

She said there could be an impact on their learning if the centre doesn’t have a space to offer its services.

“If there’s a break you may have to then go back and repeat many of the lessons that you’ve already done and unfortunately for our kids, that means that they’re not keeping up with the level in their grade either,” Holt said.

She said tutoring for children with dyslexia is not a service offered through the public school system, so the children won’t have another resource if they can’t offer the service.

Beyond better academic performance, Toudjian said the tutoring helps the children feel more comfortable in their own skin.

“Our kids come in and they’ve usually tried a few other places. They come in somewhat beaten down. They feel defeated, they feel dumb,” Toudjian said.

“Within a month or a couple months, you see subtle things, like they raise their head up when they come in here.”

A spokesperson for the City of Moncton told Global News in a statement that the organization’s lease with the Lion’s Centre was set to end at the end of the year, and that it has sent the group a list of potential alternative locations.

Toudjian empathizes with the people who will use the Lion’s Centre as a shelter.

“I just wish it could have been done in a more thoughtful manner — treating them with respect as well as treating the tenants in this building with respect, at least giving us a head’s up that this is coming down the pipeline be prepared. There was none of that,” she said.

The centre moved into the Lion’s Centre in January after having to vacate its previous location due to flooding issues.

Toudjian said they have until Friday to tell the movers whether they are moving into storage or a new location.