January 15, 2009
People for Education
Speaking notes of Gillian Mason, Senior Vice President, Strategic Initiatives and Community Partnerships, United Way Toronto
Thank you very much, Annie, for inviting United Way to be here today.
We are pleased to have been a partner in developing this report. We are even more pleased to endorse its recommendations for Ontario’s urban and suburban schools.
United Way works to build strong neighbourhoods, create opportunities for youth success, and help newcomers fulfill their potential. The recommendations in this report directed not to only schools, but to municipal and the provincial governments are well aligned with United Way’s community impact approach, and support our efforts to help build better communities.
Everyone has a role to play in creating healthy and vibrant urban and suburban schools… places that create opportunities for children, youth and their families.
At their core, thriving communities are built on open, accessible schools — they are critical community assets.
So we’re pleased this report includes a call to open the doors of our schools for community use. It includes a call to fund a range of programs and activities directed toward children, youth, adults and seniors. As we all know, it takes partners from all parts of the community to meet the challenges in our neighbourhoods.
This report emphasizes the importance of coordination at the municipal and provincial government level. This is a familiar call echoed by the recent and very important Roots of Youth Violence Review report, and the province’s current Poverty Reduction Strategy.
The concept of a whole-of-government approach that addresses the broad range of factors that impact the success of children, youth and their families is very exciting. It acknowledges that the solutions lie not only within the schools’ buildings but across many domains.
Let me illustrate: United way’s Action for Neighbourhood Change program is mobilizing the community in the 13 priority neighbourhoods through resident engagement and community building, with a view to creating resident-led, long-term, sustainable change.
We know that families have a far greater chance for success when everyone works together to reduce barriers and create opportunities.
At United Way, we feel strongly that by working together collaboratively with community partners and government, we can identify shared goals and achieve lasting change. In order to make the lives of families measurably better and to build strong communities, we know we need to be creative and try new things.
We are supporting innovative approaches including a strategic partnership with Pathways to Education Canada, a program that has demonstrated success in reducing the dropout rates and increasing access to post-secondary for youth at risk of not completing their education.
United Way is also the trustee for the Youth Challenge Fund, which has very successfully engaged youth in the priority neighbourhoods and supported innovative strategies that are both youth-led as well as youth-driven.
We’ve also launched a Community of Practice on Youth Educational Attainment. This is a learning network for staff engaged in educational partnerships to exchange knowledge and best practice so that they can provide effective programs and strengthen the network of innovative supports both inside and outside their local schools.
We all know that success depends on changing the root causes of disparity. And now there is great momentum for change. Once again, the Roots of Youth Violence report – as well as the provincial government’s Poverty Reduction Strategy – have reinforced that poverty and lack of access to opportunities are interrelated.
The report you are receiving today from People for Education presents a bold vision for Ontario’s urban and suburban schools and issues a call for collective action to support our young people to reach their potential. United Way is pleased to lend its support and we encourage others to be part of this change.
Thank you.
