Helen Tufts

Helen Tufts Child Outreach Program

Something’s in the oven in the Lower Kitchen this evening. It smells delicious! What does this have to do with social justice at Sydenham Street United Church? Many families in Kingston struggle with poverty, disability and underemployment, and people connected to SSUC and The Spire have worked for generations to provide support and programming for some of these families. A good example is the Helen Tufts Child Outreach Program, operating at 82 Sydenham Street for decades, with a current successful partnership between Sydenham Street United Church and Queen’s University’s Alma Mater Society (the undergraduate student society). What’s this all about?

The Helen Tufts Child Outreach Program (HTCOP) began in 1968. An offshoot of the Helen Tufts’ Nursery¨ it provided a resource for children who had aged out of the nursery. The new program was developed to continue to help support these underserved community members. Originally named the Helen Tufts Tutorial, the program aims to help children between the ages of 6 and 13 by providing a safe, fun and collaborative educational environment where they can gather. The program was retitled the Helen Tufts Child Outreach Program a few years ago.

Teamwork: seniors, students, children

The Helen Tufts program pairs each child with a volunteer Queen’s student who helps the child with literacy skills, plays games, does a craft and acts as a role model and mentor. That delicious smell coming from the Lower Kitchen is some cookies– they’re doing some baking at HTCOP tonight! Space is provided by Sydenham Street United Church.  Volunteers from the church community include a coordinator, a treasurer, and an auditor. Financial support comes from the Queen’s University AMS by way of an optional student activity fee, and by donations..

Each week for decades volunteers have been working with countless Kingston families, another reminder of the central role of the church in the programs located in this vibrant community hub. The Helen Tufts program is always adapting to find ways to meet the diverse needs of the community appropriately and efficiently. An ongoing challenge is transportation. Most families are not within walking distance, many do not have a vehicle, or even have the time to get their child to SSUC between their work and other responsibilities. To deal with this, the program provides vouchers to cover the cost of transportation by taxi.

HTCOP: Learning outside of school

The Helen Tufts Child Outreach Program has a dual purpose that benefits Kingston and the greater community. Firstly, it assists families and children by providing a place for them to learn and have fun in a safe non-school environment. Secondly, it provides an opportunity for Queen’s students to get involved in the Kingston community and spread their passion for education with the children temporarily in their care. They can develop a personal connection with the children, enriching their experience while at Queen’s. What about this Helen Tufts? Who was she anyway?

Helen Tufts: determination in action

Helen Loring Tufts was born in 1892 in Oneida County, New York and died in upper New York State in 1969. Her long life was a marvel of dedication and grit, most of it spent a world away from New York. Tufts joined the American Baptist Women’s Missionary Society, became a Baptist missionary and spent 23 years in Burma as the head of an English Burmese high school in Rangoon (Yangon).

During the Second World War, the Japanese army invaded Burma and successfully occupied the area. Helen realized that the school would have to evacuate to safety after Japanese troops took over the building and threatened the school community. She helped the children to flee, guiding the refugees through stifling heat, ceaseless rain and difficult terrain as they escaped from Burma, reaching safety in India. Tufts was dauntless: within 2 years she was head of another school in Nagaon, Assam. In the immediate aftermath of the Japanese invasion and then retreat, Tufts took up her duties in her new school and reported in a positive way about the smaller numbers of students: she could offer them more individual attention. This feature is of course a bit like the program named for Helen Tufts operating in Kingston more than 75 years later.

One of the students she helped during the invasion eventually moved to Canada. That student was Mary Straw. She chose to commemorate Helen Tufts by working to establish a nursery school in Kingston, honouring Helen’s legacy of determination and courage, working with children and those in need. Mary set up the nursery school at First Baptist Church. Volunteers later added a tutorial program for older children. The nursery and tutorial/outreach programs operated for decades, with facilities as well as financial and volunteer support from Sydenham Street United Church.  First Baptist relinquished its role in 2017. Today the child outreach program continues as part of the social justice work of Sydenham Street United/The Spire. 

We don’t know whether Helen Tufts realized that one of her students created this enduring program in her honour. It’s a long way from the steamy jungles and uplands of Myanmar to Kingston, Ontario. Thankfully, Mary Straw found the way. Her descendants and thousands of Kingston children and families celebrate the fortitude and organizational skills of the woman who had begun her journey in Southeast Asia and landed in our neighbourhood. Helen Tufts never visited Kingston, but we are thankful that Mary Straw lived and worked here so faithfully to provide a learning community. She died in 2012. 

Helen Tufts’ dedication to children and her passion for teaching and social justice endure. The programs named for her have continued to assist families and provide community links for Queen’s students.

References: American Baptist Mission Society and Women’s American Baptist Missionary Society, 1944, Assam Missionary Conference Report. Special thanks to Queen’s University student intern Kaitlyn Macdonald ED, April 2020

Updated 2026 03 10