One example of our work: Youth Education for Success (YES)

Opportunities Waterloo Region works on projects in such a way that they are owned by the communities for which they are developed, ensuring their sustainability, community commitment and support.  Through a brief overview of YES you can learn about the steps that we follow to bring an initiative to a point where it has developed a life of its own:

Who is involved:  The Community Partners

Catholic Family Counselling Centre

Cedar Hills Community Group

Central Community Church

City of Kitchener

Family Children's Services of Waterloo Region

Highland-Stirling Community Group

KPMG

Mill-Courtland Neighbourhood Association

Ray of Hope

Waterloo Region Police

Waterloo Region Public Health

Waterloo Regional Social Services

Opportunities Waterloo Region

Identifying a community need:  Youth living in poverty often fail to complete high school.  Without a diploma their employment prospects are dim, perpetuating their low-income status.  Looking for a solution to this problem, Opportunities Waterloo Region initiated a project in January of 2003 to bring together a multi-sector collaborative working group to work on a new youth poverty prevention initiative.

Discovering an innovative solution:  We decided to harness the passion and commitment of local people and agencies to prevent poverty in the Mill-Courtland neighbourhood (Cedar Hills, Woodside Park, and Southdale areas) by giving today's youth the greatest opportunities for future success.  This is to be achieved through a project called "Youth Education for Success" (YES).

The YES participants start in grade 7 and continue through to their high school graduation year.  The goal is to reach a total of 100 youths over 4 years in the form of mentoring, tutoring, advocacy, emotional and financial support through a re-designed and customized model based on the successes, learnings and strategies of Regent Park's Pathways to Education in Toronto.

By supporting youth and their families during the early school years, this project will succeed in reducing school dropouts, and increasing graduation rates.

Igniting community action:  YES is in the development phase for the next year.  This phase includes an initial pilot planned for September 2005 with full implementation slated for September 2006.

The Mill-Courtland Neighbourhood was chosen because it is one of the most disenfranchised, unemployed and economically dependant districts in Waterloo Region.  Close to 23% of people who live in this neighbourhood experience poverty and live below the low-income cutoff (LICO) as per Statistics Canada 1996 data.  Yet Mill-Courtland is rich in community assets in the form of ethnic diversity, community spirit and strong grassroots creative energy.

The YES program will primarily run from the Mill-Courtland Community Centre, as well as other locations in the neighbourhood (ie. local churches)  It will provide scholarships and educational incentives to complete post-secondary education.  This initiative motivates and empowers neighbourhood teens to complete their secondary school diploma requirements and also provides hope and tangible (monetary) incentives toward post-secondary pursuits.

Facilitation and support for this initiative:  2-year funding is currently provided by the Ontario Trillium Foundation.  This grant has been processed through the Catholic Family Counselling Centre (the YES working group's choice for a sponsoring organization).  This funding ensures that a strong program is built prior to full implementation.

Our role today: Now that a strong committed collaborative has been formed, Opportunities has shifted its focus of support to being a member of the steering committee and continues to provide consultation; assisting with fundraising efforts to ensure sustainability; and collaborating on the project's monitoring and evaluation process with an eye on future replication in other neighbourhoods. 

The benefits:

• Youth are successfully educated and afforded the opportunity to further their education and career opportunities

• Parents and families receive critical support

• Local schools receive much needed assistance

• Increased graduation rates

• Increased collaboration and networking between youth and their families.  Volunteers, businesses, households, city staff, and service agencies all investing in their own community

• Increased community safety

• Youth and their households re-investing back into the community

• Improved health and prosperity and economic revitalization of the neighbourhood

You can volunteer your mind and time to tutor or mentor youth ages between 13 and 19.  If you would like to know more about this initiative, please contact info@cfcchelps.ca or visit the Catholic Family Counselling Centre website.

Opportunities Waterloo Region

235 King Street East,

    Kitchener, ON N2G 4N5

    Tel: (519) 883-2353

    Fax: (519) 568-8587

Send us an e-mail with questions or comments about this web site.
Last modified: 07/11/06