Olympic sailors Peter Bromby and Lee White will be among the celebrities joining this year's fifth annual 6K Children's Walk-a-thon hosted by The Family Learning Centre on Sunday.

Up to the weekend the pair, who recently competed at the Sydney Olympics and just missed out on a bronze medal, were two of the adult and child role models who had agreed to lend their support to the walk which will raise funds for The Family Learning Centre to support their programmes as well as the Inter-Agency Committee for Children and Families.

The walk, which coincides with the 10th anniversary of the founding of The Family Learning Centre, will also correspond with the celebrations around the world for the United Nations' Universal Day of the Child, which will be observed on Monday, November 20, and the anniversary of the International Declaration of the Rights of the Child.

The walk will start and finish at Victoria Park, beginning at 2 p.m.

(following registration at 1.30) and there will be a water stop at the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute. The walk will be followed by a wide variety of free activities until 6 p.m. for the children and families who take part, including face painting, live music and entertainment, crafts, games and the cutting of The Family Learning Centre's 10th birthday cake.

Registration costs $12 per adult and includes a t-shirt, while for participants 18 and under, sign-up and t-shirts are free. Advance registration and pledge sheets can be obtained from The Family Learning Centre at the Stables on Reid Street or by calling 295-1116.

Martha Dismont, Executive Director of the Family Learning Centre, said: "The walk is a great deal of fun, and the children involved always have a great time. It's also a chance for us to involve the entire community in raising funds for vulnerable children in our community.

"We're urging every family to join us at Victoria Park on Sunday to walk with us or to sponsor a walker, and help us make our 10th birthday walk a bigger event that ever before.

"We'd like to encourage businesses to involve employee teams, for sponsor activities, or to make matching contributions. We're also contacting schools and nurseries to get involved since we'd like as many children as possible to participate.'' Mrs. Dismont said people can also help by volunteering as walk marshalls, helping to staff water points or assisting with registration on the day.

Family Learning Centre lifts students, one step at a time To volunteer, register a team, sponsor a walker or request further information, call The Family Learning Centre.

As a special incentive, prizes of paintings by Don Trousdell will be awarded to the individual family and company raising the most sponsorship money. They may choose to keep their painting or, as last year's recipients, to donate their prize to a cause of their choice.

The Family Learning Centre was founded in 1990 as The Learning Centre, primarily to address the tutorial needs for primary and high school children.

In the last five years their focus changed to address other issues facing families.

"Eventually it became very clear that many of the children we saw for academic needs had other issues which interfered with their ability to do well in school,'' explained Mrs. Dismont.

"So in 1995 we shifted to a different programme with more emphasis on the family so that the child could do better in school.'' The children are also involved in other activities which help raise their confidence.

"They do community service as a way of increasing their self esteem and giving back to the community,'' said the Director. "It does wonders for these children, the goal is to provide them with alternative activities from what they are used to.

"Many of them are used to riding a bike and staying out until late hours at night, but in our programme they can go to Windreach to learn about the animal farm there or go and work with seniors.'' The programme grew from a few children in 1990 in need of tutoring to about 100 a week in 1995 who also enrolled in the summer programme for tutoring when teachers from the schools were also utilised.

Now the programme involves both the child, who may be faced with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties, and their parents. The Centre provides clinical, therapeutic and educational services which help children and their families work together to overcome their difficulties.

Because the programme is so comprehensive, the solutions it provides are long lasting -- both for the families concerned and for Bermuda community as a whole, by working with children before they reach their teens.

The Centre can not only help prevent the damaging influences and behaviour affecting at-risk children from developing further, but encourage them to move forward with a healthier attitude and to contribute to society in a positive way.

"Our mission is to stabilise children and families,'' said Mrs. Dismont who has a background in counselling and social work.

"We honestly believe the child who cries out is the `hero'. It's so important that the community be aware that you can't point fingers and blame children for acting out. Children are a product of their environment. We see some of the highest-risk families on the Island.

"It's mandatory for at least one parent to be involved in the service, otherwise we don't take the child. We can't change anything unless we're working with the primary parent.'' Added Mrs. Dismont: "Our goal is two-fold, we work with families and provide the service they need. The goal is for the parent to take ownership of the change. We actually hold parenting groups and teach new parenting skills.

"The second part is working with other agencies, talking about standards and quality service. We co-founded the inter-agency committee for children and families, about 40 Government, private and non-profit agencies that work with children and families. We see a lot of the same clients so it makes sense to come together...

"It's been in operation since 1995 and I've been chair of that committee for the last four years.'' The Family Learning Centre takes referrals from schools, child and family services and by word of mouth and are presenting working with about 45 families. Mrs. Dismont says there are an equal number of children in the programme from both single and two-parent families and most of the children in the programme are boys.

"If you want to see a change and have success you've got to be able to work with influences in a child's life,'' she says.

"We basically see children for six to nine months. Once we discharge someone we will check on them three months, six months, a year, to make sure they are going along as they need to.'' The Family Learning Centre also has two psychologists, a social worker and a `milieu' co-ordinator on staff and a part-time clinical director. There are 12 volunteers. Peter Carey is the programme director.

More on the Family Learning Centre Page 29