Equipping Students for Success

Without proper access to technology at home, students from low-income families cannot help but fall further behind their peers. That is why PGSD started “the GEO Project” in 2020, which has since inspired the formation of GEO Nova Scotia, a province-wide non-profit organization dedicated to universal Digital Inclusion. 

Since 2021, The Public Good Society of Dartmouth has partnered with GEO Nova Scotia to deliver Equipping Students for Success, with funding provided by the Halifax Youth Foundation.

In the first two years, the program delivered 75 brand new Chromebooks and headsets to students whose family could not otherwise them. Since then, the program shifted focus to students with disabilities from low-income families. Many of them are learning to use technology like an iPad and special apps at their school that is making a big difference.

Non-verbal students, for example, are learning to communicate using a special app for iPads called Proloquo2go, the license for which costs $350 + tax.

Unfortunately, for the families who cannot afford these expensive devices and applications it means their kids don’t have the same tools in their home lives as they do when they are in school. This leads to frustration and learning loss, according to school support staff.

By the end of 2026, with PGSD’s partnership, GEO will have distributed 150 iPads with sturdy protective cases to students living with disabilities, many of them including specialized applications as needed. 

Here is what one parent had to say about the impact of the program on her son and their family:

“Having access to this program has made an unmeasurable impact on my child. He went from being non verbal to being able to communicate and express himself and use his words which I never thought was going to be possible. He is now even able to read basic words and choose his own foods on a menu and play games with flash cards. 

I feel like I have a much better understanding of what he is asking and needing. He has much less behavioural problems now that he feels understood. I can’t express how much weight has been lifted off us.”