Communities in Action

Student Nutrition Program

"The healthy breakfast provided by Ministry of Children and Youth Services funding through the Student Nutrition Program has had a measurable difference in student success, especially in our lowest income communities where as many as 68 per cent of children and youth come to school without eating," says Catherine Parsonage, Executive Director, Toronto Foundation for Student Success.

"Research conducted by the Toronto District School Board in schools in the Jane and Finch community over the past three years has shown that children that eat breakfast regularly perform nine to 16 per cent higher on Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) tests in reading, writing and math.

"In high school, students that eat breakfast regularly are on track for high school graduation, with remarkable differences seen in the standardized Grade 9 math test. Students that eat breakfast regularly are 11 per cent more likely to achieve the provincial standard on the test than those that do not.

"At both levels, students reported their health had improved since the breakfast program began and this is demonstrated in reduced absenteeism rates. Just as importantly, student suspension rates decreased by 50 per cent in the two years following the introduction of the breakfast program."

Youth Services Bureau of Ottawa

The bureau serves young people aged 12 and older, and focuses on kids with difficulties that affect their physical and/or emotional well-being and development. The bureau provides a full range of services to help troubled young people learn independence and self-sufficiency. Emergency shelter and transitional housing is provided where each person has a door that locks and a space of their own. Services are provided in partnership with kids, to ensure their voices have a positive impact.

Youth Emergency Shelter of Peterborough

As well as providing shelter and homelessness supports to young people, the Youth Emergency Shelter of Peterborough offers a number of programs to increase their potential. The Shelter connects youth with community partners to directly benefit the community. It offers essential training in basic life skills, like opening a bank account, fixing a leaky toilet, or managing unruly friends. It also offers a work skills development program targeted to at-risk youths aged 16-24.

Covenant House – Toronto

Covenant House provides 24 hour crisis care to kids in trouble. The largest shelter for homeless youth in Canada, Covenant House also has a wide range of services under one roof, including education, counselling, health care and employment assistance. Since opening its doors in 1982, Covenant House has offered opportunity and hope to more than 70,000 young people.

Pathways to Education

In 2001, Toronto Regent Park Community Health Centre created Pathways to Education , a program designed to lower the dropout rate, help young people from lower-income families succeed in high school and continue on to obtain a post-secondary education. The program has academic support, social support through mentors, financial incentives encouraging completion of high school and to support the move to post-secondary education, and an advocacy role to help parents and students better connect with teachers, school administrators, and community agencies.

Pathways to Education has had extraordinary success. Dropout rates in the neighbourhood have gone from 56 per cent to 12 per cent, increasing the proportion of young people attending post-secondary education from 20 per cent to 80 per cent. Starting in 2011, Ontario is providing additional $28.5 million over three years to expand the programs in Ottawa, Kitchener, Hamilton, Kingston and Toronto.

Threshold School of Building – Hamilton

Hamilton’s Threshold School of Building is a non-profit organization dedicated to practical and sustainable community development in the Hamilton area. Threshold focuses on trades skills training for at-risk youth along with life skills mentoring. The aim is to improve the employability of young people by giving them the skills necessary to succeed in the construction industry.

Vibrant Communities

Vibrant Communities is a community-driven effort to reduce poverty in Canada by creating partnerships that make use of our most valuable assets: people, organizations, businesses and governments. It is a unique approach to poverty reduction that allows communities to learn from, and help, one another. Vibrant Communities links communities right across Canada in a collective effort to test the most effective ways of reducing poverty at the grassroots level.

Regent Park Revitalization

Home to 7,500 people, Regent Park is Canada's largest and oldest publicly funded community. It is in the midst of a massive revitalization project, with deteriorating buildings and public spaces being transformed into a healthy, mixed-income and sustainable community. When the project is completed, the new Regent Park will be a mixed residential community for 12,500 people in 5,115 units. Revitalization will replace all existing 2083 units of social housing and will contribute at least 700 additional affordable housing units.

The City of Toronto - Tower Renewal

The city is working towards enabling vast areas of Toronto to become vibrant and “complete communities”. The city will be helping currently excluded areas throughout Toronto become ecologically, socially, culturally and economically sustainable communities.

As well as striving to achieve significant environmental efficiencies, the city aims to create complete communities within apartment neighbourhoods. This could transform currently excluded areas into community hubs. Community services, gathering and recreation space, new retail, entrepreneurial opportunities and housing could all be integrated on-site to benefit the resident community and city at large.

This kind of community revitalization links directly to the Poverty Reduction Strategy and the province’s Places to Grow plan. It is a great example of how – with collective effort - we can create a place where every person has the opportunity to achieve his or her full potential, and contribute to and participate in a prosperous, healthy, and just Ontario.

Habitat for Humanity Canada

Habitat for Humanity Canada is a non-profit, charitable organization whose mission is to mobilize volunteers and community partners in building affordable housing and promoting homeownership as a means to breaking the cycle of poverty. Habitat for Humanity Canada, through its 72 local affiliate chapters, helps low-income families build and buy quality affordable homes through a no-interest, no-profit mortgage with payments set at less than 30 per cent of gross income. This tangible solution not only increases the stock of available housing, it enables low-income families to build assets, reduce their dependence on other forms of social assistance, and break the cycle of poverty.

211

211 is a free, non-emergency information and referral telephone service for community, social, health and related government services such as food banks, homeless shelters, nursing homes, employment centres, and children’s services.

In 2006, the government began supporting the United Way and its partners who operate the system with $4.4 million to support start up costs and website development.

The government announced in the Budget 2008 an investment of more than $13 million over four years to expand the 211 system. From 2012 onwards, the government will provide annualized funding of $4 million to maintain the 211 service.

211 helps a wide range of Ontarians to easily access the services they need. 211 improves customer service and makes it easier for Ontarians to reach diverse services such as connecting to affordable housing programs and shelters, re-training programs and support for families in crisis.

Social Capital Partners

Social Capital Partners invests in social enterprises that employ populations outside the economic mainstream in Canada in order to improve their social outcomes and financial self-sufficiency. Social Capital Partners also focus on recent immigrants to Canada who have displayed entrepreneurial and management capabilities before arriving in Canada. SPC invests in new immigrants that are perceived to lack the requisite skills, credit history, networks, or access to capital that would allow them to succeed in Canada. Our financing program can eliminate structural barriers.