Hooked on School Days
Since 2004, Hooked on School Days (HSD) has mobilized all of Québec to highlight the value of staying in school and encouraging academic success.
Over the years, HSD has become an annual opportunity to increase awareness and engagement and to highlight the importance of getting involved with young people and supporting them in their efforts to succeed.
This week-long event in the third week of February falls at a crucial time in the school year, when students may experience a drop in energy and motivation.
HSD is thus a forum in which Québec society can encourage students, highlight their efforts, and listen to their motivations and aspirations.
Objectives
HSD is a broad awareness and mobilization campaign aimed at helping to change social norms so that:
- A majority of Québec’s population deems that staying in school and getting an education is essential to a society’s positive development.
- Each of us takes action to encourage young people to stay in school.
- A majority of stakeholders (political decision-makers and employers) feel that they can play an active role in encouraging young people aged 0 to 20 to continue their education and earn a diploma or a qualification.
- A majority of Québec’s population feels that helping young people aged 0 to 20 stay in school and earn a diploma or qualification should be something that happens both inside and outside the school.
The growth of a great movement
Hooked on School Days was born in the Montérégie, thanks to Réussite Montérégie, a regional consulting authority (RCA) on school perseverance. The first Montérégie “Hooked on School Day” took place on February 21, 2005 in response to needs expressed by young people during youth commissions in school dropout and perseverance held in 2004 by the region and MRC.
Determined to join the movement, the equivalent organization in our region, Partners for Educational Success Estrie (Projet PRÉE) - now R3USSIR -, organized Hooked on School Days in Estrie for the first time in February 2010.
This broad awareness and mobilization campaign later grew into the Québec-wide event we know today.
HSD in Estrie
Since 2010, R3USSIR organizes hundreds of local organizations around the importance of engaging in actions that make a real difference in the academic success of all students, from pre-schoolers to young adults. These organizations organize a wide range of regional activities to encourage perseverance at school.
