ANNE MARIE McDONALD

I grew up around the corner from where the Kingston Community Health Centres now stands. In high school, a friend from across town once asked me, “Isn’t that where people get shanked?!” Later, when I attended Queen’s University, my local friends were aghast that I had made it to university from “that neighbourhood.” It was only after I had made a future for myself that I was able to talk confidently about where I’d grown up.

Many kids from Kingston’s “north end” still combat this stigma. But I am happy to say that what was once a bingo hall and then a vacant plaza at the corner of Weller Avenue and Compton Street is now a vibrant, accessible hub providing medical and dental care for families, a variety of services for young mothers and newcomers to Canada, and a unique tutoring and mentoring program for neighbourhood youth.

Operating under the umbrella of KCHC, Pathways to Education Kingston has been increasing high school graduation and post-secondary retention rates for students from the Rideau Heights and Inner Harbour communities since the agency opened its doors in 2010. Thanks to funding from Pathways Canada, local organizations such as the United Way and community donors, the staff at Pathways are working with students and their families to reverse this area’s staggering dropout rates.

The program offers a quiet space where students can meet with a student-parent support worker, make a healthy meal, and access trained volunteers who tutor every subject in the Ontario curriculum. Each student is matched initially with an SPSW who tracks and supports the student throughout his or her high school career, acting as an important liaison between home and school for parents who find it difficult to navigate the education system. SPSWs often attend meetings at the school as a support to parents and guardians, or act “in locus parentis” when there is no caregiver able to support the student.

I was fortunate recently to return to my old neighbourhood as vice-principal, and then principal, at Queen Elizabeth Collegiate and Vocational Institute until its closure in 2016. I witnessed first-hand how Pathways to Education helped change our conversation with students about their education, and the mindset of families who had previously believed that a post-secondary education was not a viable or tangible goal for their children.

During my tenure at QE, I attended many meetings with parents who declared that they wanted a better life for their children than what they had experienced. Participation with Pathways enabled us to give these parents hope that there were supports to help make that happen.

Pathways to Education Kingston serves a demographic that includes many families living in multigenerational poverty. Breaking this “cycle of poverty” is a complex process.

For example, some students feel guilt about leaving home to attain their educational goals because they will no longer be able to contribute to child care or living expenses. Some feel that leaving their family to pursue an education is a statement that what parents or caregivers provided them wasn’t good enough. And some simply don’t realize the potential opportunities or financial gains of additional education and training.

I came to better understand these complexities through our school’s partnership with Pathways to Education. I remember a student who was to be the recipient of an anonymous donation to help pay for graduation clothes and a college application fee. When I shared the news, the student replied, “That’s OK, Ms. McDonald, you should give it to someone who needs it more than me.” This came from a student who slept on a cot in the motel room that his family rented.

I am also reminded of a time when, as vice-principal, I questioned a bright young man about why he always skipped his afternoon classes and threatened him with the prospect of not receiving his credits. After much interrogation by me, he finally shared that his mother had an addiction, and he needed to take her to the nearby soup kitchen where they could get a free, hot lunch. Suddenly, my sense of urgency about woodshop class diminished.

That day I learned an important lesson: that context is everything. Who was I to judge that student for not coming to school, or that parent for not valuing her son’s education? It is easy for all of us to see the world through only our own lived experience. Pathways to Education staff enable schools to better understand the hidden obstacles that sometimes stand in the way of a student’s educational success.

I learned many other lessons during the years when I supported students from the community in which I grew up. I realized there are a number of aspects to attaining a post-secondary education that can make someone in poverty feel like they don’t belong: simple things, such as the fact that you need to have access to a computer to make online payments, or the assumption that prospective students will have the resources to tour various campuses before deciding where to apply.

Post-secondary planning can be daunting for anyone, but it is compounded for those who are “first-gen” students and don’t have a caregiver or sibling who has gone through the process, knows how to navigate the complexities of the Ontario College Application Service and Ontario Universities’ Application Centre, or knows how to apply for financial assistance through the Ontario Student Assistance Program. In addition, many families with financial barriers don’t have a credit card or enough financial security to cover tuition instalments or initial residence fees, which sometimes require a 50 per cent payment to hold a spot.

Pathways to Education helps students overcome these barriers by assisting with the application process, facilitating campus tours, providing post-secondary subsidies to those who engage in its tutoring and mentoring program, and then providing further mentoring through the transition to higher education.

So when we ask families from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds to set their sights on a post-secondary education for their child, we are not only asking a lot financially. We may also be asking them to value and aspire to something for which they have no frame of reference. My lived experience and financial security give me the confidence to support my child in the pursuit of his dreams. I suspect that is not the case for parents whose circumstances are different.

Education is the gateway to improved life outcomes for those living in poverty. But attaining that goal can have many financial and cultural barriers. The Pathways program helps students and their families cross those barriers.

I encourage anyone who wants to make an investment in the future — in our collective future — to consider donating to Pathways to Education Kingston. It serves all of us to see the young people of this city attain their best future possible. We will all be better for it.

Anne Marie McDonald is principal of Loyalist Collegiate and Vocational Institute. She lives in Kingston.