The GTA has the dubious distinction of being the child poverty capital of the country — and poverty is often a barrier to success. That’s why United Way is working with a network of agencies to ensure children and youth are equipped with the tools they need to change their trajectories.

The On Your Mark program run by Working Women Community Centre, for example, provides tutoring and mentoring opportunities for Portuguese- and Spanish-speaking children in Grades 1 to 12 who are struggling in school and are at risk of dropping out.

“Education was not a high priority in the Old Country for many, but the [Portuguese] community has really rallied around this program because they don’t want to see these students left behind,” says Marcie Ponte, executive director of Working Women Centre.

Ponte, also part of Toronto’s Portuguese community, says the program is designed to instill self-esteem in students. “We want to change attitudes in these communities, that they can all do well,” she says, “but they need doors opened.”

In 2000, the City of Toronto commissioned a study on ethno-racial inequality and identified five gap communities with the highest school drop-out rates — and that included the Portuguese community. That’s when Ponte started a program to address the issue of school completion.

On Your Mark started out with 35 students; now, 250 to 300 students participate annually in 142 schools across the city, and the Hispanic community was added to the program in 2008. Free one-on-one weekly sessions with a tutor are offered Monday through Saturday, focusing on a student’s particular challenges. The program also involves up to 200 volunteers — many of whom are graduates of the program.

“It’s not a homework club, it’s not a drop-in. Students commit to coming once a week,” says Ponte. “In addition to mentoring and tutoring, we run information sessions for parents. One of the commitments that parents have to make is they too have to participate in at least one workshop — we don’t want this to be a babysitting program.”

A Toronto District School Board review in 2015 showed the Portuguese drop-out rate has since declined by 10 per cent. “I suspect that’s now down to 20 per cent, and we’re hoping to get to the same place with Spanish-speaking students,” says Ponte.

On Your Mark has a unique partnership with both the TDSB and Catholic School Board, as well as other educational institutions, including York University, Ryerson University, the University of Toronto and Seneca College. A majority of its volunteers are university students.

Katia Maio is not only a successful graduate of the program, but is now “paying it back” to her community as a volunteer and mentor. Maio struggled with math as a young student and participated in On Your Mark for about six years. Today, she’s back in school, doing post-graduate studies in forensic identification at Humber College.

“It was my parents who made me go to the program on Saturdays, and no student really wants to go to school on Saturday,” says Maio. “But I started to look forward to going. Everyone did seem to have a sincere interest in the students.” Her experience was so positive, in fact, that her brother and many of her cousins followed suit.

Without it, she says she would have faced a more difficult path since she wouldn’t have had a “kickstart” that opened her mind to new possibilities. She also won a scholarship through the program, “so there is a lot of incentive to make you want to better yourself and push yourself.”

Now, as a young adult, Maio is in her second year of volunteering with On Your Mark, working one-on-one with the same student who is dealing with a language barrier and struggling with several subjects. What she wants to convey to her young student is that there’s an entire community that cares about his success.

A key to the program’s success is its partnership with both school boards. “That’s a unique example of breaking down traditional silos, and Marcie has broken through it,” says Jim Spyropoulos, executive superintendent of human rights and Indigenous education at the TDSB.

“One of the things we know about our work with students, families and communities is that we absolutely can’t engage in the work alone, especially with respect to serving students and communities that have traditionally been underserved,” says Spyropoulos. That’s why he says it makes sense to partner with organizations on the ground, rather than reinventing the wheel.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

There’s a strong connection between lack of resources and poverty, and this model provides support to students from older students in the same community, “many of whom are passionate about social justice issues,” says Spyropoulos. “We’ve done short-term studies that say there’s a positive impact on achievement. It’s made a difference.”

Through strategically targeted investments, United Way supports programming for families with low incomes who may not otherwise have access, ensuring that no child is left behind — including programs such as On Your Mark. “It fits nicely with poverty-reduction strategies,” says Ponte. “If these gap communities start to feel worthwhile, the chances of living in poverty become more diminished.”