254 THEISLAND ACADIANS 
     
    
   
   
    
     developmental work that needed to be done. The results of these 
     
     efforts were soon to appear: two French socio-cultural clubs were 
     
     formed, one in the Tignish-Palmer Road area (Ti-Pa Cultural Club) 
     
     and another one in Charlottetown (Port Lajoie Cultural Centre); the 
     
     Acadian youth camp (Tisou) was founded in 1971; the newspaper La 
     
     Voix Acadienne in 1975; and Jeunesse Acadienne in 1976. The Saint 
     
     Thomas Aquinas Society increased its membership and was able to 
     
     involve more young people in its activities. 
     
    

    
     Education was still the most important area of concern since the 
     
     survival of the French language and the Acadian culture depended a 
     
     great deal on the education the young people received. The Education 
     
     Committee of the Saint Thomas Aquinas Society worked hard to 
     
     convince not only Acadians but also English-speaking Islanders of the 
     
     importance of French-language education. Seminars, workshops, en- 
     
     quiries, public awareness and promotional campaigns, and other ac- 
     
     tivities were organized to encourage Acadian parents to demand French 
     
     language education for their children. In 1974, the Saint Thomas 
     
     Aquinas Society convinced all the school districts to take advantage 
     
     of the financial help available from the Secretary of State and hire a 
     
     French co-ordinator. The French Immersion Program was started and 
     
     French-language teaching was improved in schools throughout the 
     
     Island as a result. 
     
    

    
     After consulting its members in 1977, the Saint Thomas Aquinas 
     
     Society drew up a global development plan for the Acadian community 
     
     on the Island®*°. It was a five-year plan of action which covered educa- 
     
     tional, social, cultural, political and economic matters. After first seek- 
     
     ing ways to implement the plan, the Society began expanding its 
     
     services and activities so that by 1979 it had a staff of nine and was 
     
     comprised ofa board of directors, an executive and six committees*!. 
     
    

    
     The Saint Thomas Aquinas Society now assumed, more than ever, 
     
     the role of a political pressure group. By various means including the 
     
     press, petitions, requests, and meetings with the Premier and the 
     
     members of his Cabinet, the Society demanded that the provincial 
     
     government establish a policy for the development of the Acadian 
     
     communities and government services in French, and that the School 
     
     Act be amended to legalize the creation and existence of homogeneous 
     
     French schools. The provincial government agreed, at least in part, to 
     
     some of these demands. In 1977, for example, the Executive Council