Six years ago, “Sandra” was living in a shelter for abused women with her young daughter and feeling like a failure.

Today, the Toronto woman has a college degree and works in information technology. Her daughter is thriving in school and Sandra’s living wage means she can afford to rent a comfortable apartment.

“I never thought I could have a job that I could brag about to people,” she says in a powerful video about her escape from a violent spouse and homelessness.

Sandra says her extraordinary transformation wouldn’t have been possible without the help of an award-winning Toronto program developed by Woodgreen Community Services that offers the city’s most vulnerable single mothers affordable housing, high-quality child care, post-secondary education and employment support.

To date, the 10-year old Homeward Bound program has helped 176 women like Sandra turn their lives around.

And this spring, a Halton non-profit housing corporation will become the first in Canada to replicate the program.

“We are proud to see this initiative move forward and set a strong example for replication in other communities across the country,” said Woodgreen Chief Operating Officer Anne Babcock.

Woodgreen is also talking to potential partners in Peterborough and Brockville as well as the Ontario Federation of Indian Friendship Centres, which would like to adapt Homeward Bound to help First Nations women escape poverty in cities across the province, she said.

“We are very excited to bring this innovative and creative program to Halton Region,” said Peter Kolisnyk, a board member of Home Suite Hope Shared Living Corp., which will oversee the new Homeward Bound initiative in Oakville.

“Homeward Bound will allow us to take our program to the next level and allow us to help a broader range of families,” he said.

Under the program, single mothers and their children will be offered a furnished apartment for up to four years, a two-year college-level diploma, job internships, fully funded child care and employment in their field of study with living wages.

Halton Region is helping with child care and housing subsidies for first three years, while Home Suite Hope is looking for partners to help pay for tuition and books, Kolisnyk said.

“The overall objective is to provide complete self-sufficiency and break the cycle of poverty for the mothers and the generations beyond,” Kolisnyk said.

Although Halton Region has wealthy communities, the number of families led by a single mother jumped by 32 per cent between 2006 and 2011, according to Statistics Canada. Of those, almost 2,000 were living in poverty, Kolisnyk noted.

The Halton non-profit currently offers a two-year transitional housing program that provides life-skills and job training to 11 single-mother-led families. By the end of the year, 15 families will be served. With the addition of the new Homeward Bound program, it expects to add another five women every year for the next three years.

The goal is to eventually serve up to 30 women and between 45 and 50 children through both programs.

“This program is not a handout, it’s an opportunity,” Kolisnyk said. “The women we choose are very motivated to make a change in their lives.”

In Toronto, Homeward Bound has grown to accommodate 76 women in two east-end buildings. Although the program provides four years of wrap-around support, the average stay is three years. Some women graduate in as little as two years, Babcock said.

About $500,000 of the program’s $900,000 annual budget comes from fundraising. The United Way provides about $160,000 and the rest comes from the City of Toronto through rent supplements and child-care subsidies, she said.

A 2006 Boston Consulting cost-benefit analysis of the program calculated a $4 benefit to taxpayers for every $1 spent on the program.

Each graduate and her family generates almost $300,000 in public savings during her lifetime, Babcock noted.

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

During provincial pre-budget consultations in February, Woodgreen asked Queen’s Park to provide $1.9 million a year for five years to help other communities adopt the model.

“This is largely a community-driven program,” Babcock said. “But some government support to make it happen, to provide the seed money, would be huge.

“It brings community investment, it encourages groups to work together collaboratively,” she said. “And it solves a fairly large problem that we are facing.”

Read more about: