Clientele

VALORIS TARGET GROUPS

• To be eligible for Valoris, your school must be located in one of the following regions that are implementing the program in the 2012-2013 school year: Capitale-Nationale, Chaudière-Appalaches, Mauricie, Estrie, Montréal, Montérégie, Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean, Bas-Saint-Laurent, Côte-Nord and Lanaudière. A call for Valoris participants has been sent out to youth entrepreneurship awareness officers (YEAO), youth entrepreneurship promotion officers (YEPO) and local and regional Contest coordinators to allow other regions to participate in Valoris during the current school year. Between now and 2014, the Québec Entrepreneurship Contest intends to implement Valoris in all of Québec’s 17 regions.

• An elementary or secondary school may participate in Valoris if it has a decile rank of 8, 9 or 10, according to the MELS socioeconomic index.
  • MELS socioeconomic index - primary
  • MELS socioeconomic index - secondary

• To be eligible for Valoris, projects must have been carried out by elementary or secondary school students (from Elementary Cycle One to Secondary Cycle Two inclusive).

WHY ARE DISADVANTAGED AREAS TARGETED?

For the following reasons:

• A greater number of factors make young people vulnerable in disadvantaged areas (MELS).
• The dropout rate is higher in these areas (Statistiques Canada).
• Entrepreneurship is well adapted to daily life in these areas, “Implementation of Entrepreneurial Projects in the Schools: Positive and Powerful Spin-Offs,” Québec Entrepreneurship Contest, 2008.
• Entrepreneurship is an inexpensive way to quickly reach a large number of young people.
• Studies on disadvantaged areas have all found that the development of a child who experiences poverty at a young age is compromised:

“Research shows us very clearly that poverty is a key contributor to the reasons young people drop out of school, out of their social milieu and out of life. It is a major stumbling block to development, especially if it is experienced intensely at a young age.” [Translation]
Camil Bouchard, professor and researcher in the psychology department at Université du Québec à Montréal

“Socioeconomic instability produces negative long-term effects, even when different variables such as a child’s behaviour and learning are taken into account.” [Translation]
Lisa A. Serbin, psychology professor at Concordia University