Expanding pathways to education

Since it was first introduced in Toronto’s Regent Park neighborhood in 2001, the Pathways to Education program has shown remarkable results. The high school dropout rate amongst Regent Park youth has declined from 56% to 10%; school absenteeism has been reduced by 50%; and the enrolment of these youth in post-secondary programs has shot up from 20% to 80%.

The Pathways program model, which provides academic, social and financial supports, as well as advocacy, has since been expanded to five new communities: Rexdale and Lawrence Heights in Toronto, Ottawa, Kitchener, and Verdun in Montreal. Today the pathways partners are celebrating the program’s success by releasing the latest results from the projects these new communities. They ought to roundly congratulated for them.