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"I'm going to George Brown College when I graduate from high school, says Denise* without hesitation." I want to get into the fashion business or become a child and youth worker."

Though she's only in Grade 9, Denise already has big dreams for her future. Her self-assurance and career focus are striking for such a young student, still in her first year of high school. Even more remarkable is that Denise lives in Toronto's Regent Park one of Canada's largest and oldest public housing projects, and faces challenges that many other high school students never have to think about.

Aside from her obvious drive and determination, Denise has something else going for her - she is enrolled in Pathways to Education, an innovative program, developed by the Regent Park Community Health Centre (CHC) which aims to keep kids in school. Until Pathways to Education began in 2001, too many kids from Regent Park were dropping out of high school. The drop out rate was 56%, twice the Toronto average.

			Regent Park - snapshot of a community in transition
			Located in downtown Toronto, Regent Park, completed in 1949, was the first planned subsidized housing complex in Canada. Of the over 11,000 people who live in Regent Park, 38% are children. The average family income is around $18,000/year which is half that of average Canadians. 68% of Regent Park's families are low income. English is a second language for nearly 60% of adults. Close to 80% of residents are newcomers to Canada. Regent Park is in the process of a major revitalization project to be completed over the next 10 or so years.

Pathways to Education has four keys to success:

• Tutoring — getting good grades
• Mentoring — preparing for the future
• Financial support — investing in potential
• Advocacy — someone on your side

Many students who flourished in the local elementary schools, were not making successful transitions to Grade 9. Regent Park has no high schools within walking distance. High school students are therefore scattered to 40 high schools across Toronto. Many families in Regent Park struggle to make ends meet, and may not own a car. There is no school bus service available for high school students, and public transit is very expensive. In many cases, kids couldn't get to school easily so they didn't go to school.

Once they drop out of school, kids from Regent Park, like many high school drop-outs, are susceptible to gangs, crime and drugs.

Carolyn Acker, Executive Director of the Regent Park CHC and the force behind the Pathways to Education program says, "Without Pathways many of the youth would end up in very low paying dead end jobs, using drugs or even dealing drugs." The object of Pathways to Education is to support academic achievement and success in high school for youth from Regent Park. Pathways raises the expectations and achievements of each individual student, and by doing this, improves the health and future of the whole community.

			Community Health Centres - beyond 'sick care'
			Community Health Centres (CHCs), provide a model of health care that recognizes that many factors, including genetics, lifestyle choices, social supports, housing, income and education affect whether people are healthy or not, over the course of their lives. Collectively, these factors are known as the determinants of health. Pathways to Education is an example of one CHC program that addresses the determinants of health. There are many other innovative programs run by CHCs across the country that also address these critical factors that influence health. Regent Park Community Health Centre The CHC at Regent Park offers a wide range of programs and services, all in languages that reach the local immigrant population, e.g. Cantonese, Mandarin, Vietnamese, Somali and Spanish. These services include: Doctors and nurses on staff Healthy child development programs Outreach to homeless people Community gardens Low-cost dental care Social work, therapy and counselling

Why is a community health centre running a program to help kids stay in school?

Carolyn Acker's answer is this, "I was looking for that leverage variable - the place to make the intervention now to have the biggest pay off later. We were trying to improve the health of the population. But that's really, really hard to do in a low-income community by providing health services alone because the most important determinants of health are education and income."

Galvanized by news from the United States of a community health centre that was breaking the cycle of poverty through education, the Regent Park CHC began to envision a new future for its community.

They saw a future where the Regent Park youth of today would become tomorrow's doctors, nurses, and community support workers - living in and giving back to their community.

This vision led the Community Health Centre to begin meeting with parents and kids to find out what they wanted. According to Acker, "Parents told us that they want their kids to graduate from high school, go on to post-secondary education and get a job. They want what all parents want for their children."

To develop Pathways, the Regent Park CHC did its homework. It studied both what works and does not work in 'stay in school' programs across North America. The CHC also calculated the enormous costs to society of not investing in these kids now. For example, social assistance and unemployment payments to people who drop out of high school are estimated to be twice that of high school graduates, while the incarceration rate is five times higher for drop outs compared to those with some post secondary education.

Pathways students and their parents sign attendance and participation contracts and the program provides four key academic, social and financial supports which help young people complete high school and move on to post-secondary education.

1. Tutoring — getting good grades
   Tutoring is a critical element in helping students achieve success in high school. Pathways students receive regular tutoring in all high school subjects on a drop in basis. Volunteers, many of whom are university students and teacher candidates from many fields across the city are recruited and trained to be tutors. There are also increasing numbers of community members and older high school students from Regent Park who volunteer as tutors as a way to give back to their own community. Both students and volunteers benefit from the exchange. As one student put it, "I was really scared about my exams, but I went to tutoring and they helped me answer questions I had trouble with. Now I'm not so frightened".
   
   
2. Mentoring — preparing for the future
   Pathways gives kids from Regent Park access to positive role models. Before the program started, many Regent Park youth did not know many adults who had successfully completed post-secondary education and were working in satisfying careers. For Grade 9 and 10 students, group-mentoring activities focus on life skills like communication and problem solving. Grade 11 and 12 students attend career and leadership development programs including visiting workplaces and local university and college campuses. Like tutors, many Pathways mentors are university and college students or community members, who are trying to make a difference for the youth in their own community.
   
   Alison Cheung, Tutoring Program Facilitator, sees the difference this makes for kids everyday. She says, "I think the critical element is the personal connections the kids develop. When they walk through those doors to come for mentoring or tutoring, they know they are welcomed. In my view one of the main reasons that education is such an important determinant of health is because of the opportunity to develop social networks and connections, also known as 'social capital', which help the kids navigate the school system, find part time jobs and eventually make career choices. These kids have access to so many more opportunities because of Pathways. Many of their parents had social capital in their home countries but they lack it here in Canada."
   
   
3. Financial support — investing in potential
   All Pathways students receive public transit tickets so that they can get to and from school. For many, this financial assistance can make the difference between attending high school or dropping out. Additionally, Pathways puts aside a $1000 scholarship per student for each year of high school they complete to help pay for post-secondary tuition. This money can only be accessed after high school graduation.
   
   For kids like Denise, the scholarship is a real motivator. It bridges the gulf between their dreams for the future and the reality they're coming from. "Kids around here are not going to be able to raise money to go to college or university," she says. Another student agrees,
   
   "Because of Pathways to Education, I'm going to university. I'm going to be a lawyer! I now know it's possible, because it's not just me who believes in me."
   
   
4. Advocacy — someone on your side
   Student Parent Support Workers (SPSWs) are the glue that holds Pathways all together by providing the link between the students, their parents and school staff to ensure that students are progressing academically and socially. One student's experience sums up the role of the SPSW in the students' lives, "I was so afraid of going into high school and leaving my community for the first time to go to school. Pathways has made it easier, I know that my SPSW is at my school and that if I have problems I can go to her for help".
   
   Peter, another Pathways student, says, "They (the SPSWs) say: here are your boundaries-maybe you should step back and think about what you are doing right now, or, go for it-it's a great opportunity for you. They are both coaches and referees for us."

Pathways' unique blend of supports coupled with its focus on achievement in school is paying off. Since it began four years ago, the results are astonishing. The absenteeism rate of Regent Park high school students has been cut by over 50%. Regent Park's students are outperforming other Toronto students in numbers of credits achieved, and that includes students from more advantaged communities.

In September 2005, the program will celebrate a major milestone - the first Pathways graduation. 75% of the original 2001 group are expected to graduate by spring 2006.

Pathways to Education is an excellent health promotion program which addresses the determinants of health — in this case income and education — with great effect.

The innovators at Regent Park CHC hope to help other communities in Canada use the model of Pathways to break the cycle of poverty through education. Pathways can transform the lives of individuals and give hope to an entire community.

*Name changed to protect privacy