Pathways to Education Canada is a national non-profit organization that works with community partners across the country to help youth to graduate from high school and achieve their full potential. In order to better understand communities with higher-than-average rates of youth leaving school without a diploma, Pathways created a Community Mapping Tool – an interactive resource that presents community-level information on a range of indicators linked to youth well-being and educational success. Users can get socioeconomic profiles of communities across the country.
Building on this success, SmartSAVER and Pathways to Education Canada partnered to enhance the Community Mapping Tool by adding data on the 2015 take-up rate of the Canada Learning Bond (CLB). The CLB provides eligible, lower-income children with up to $2,000 into an RESP. With this added perspective, organizations on the ground operating in these neighbourhoods will be even better equipped with information to connect people in their communities with available supports.
The collaboration between Pathways to Education Canada and SmartSAVER was inspired by the idea of collective impact – the philosophy that organizations should build and improve tools and strategies together to solve social problems. Access to accurate, reliable data is crucial to putting this idea into action. Pathways to Education Canada believes that poverty and access to post secondary education are intimately related issues – solving one requires the ability to understand and solve the other. With the most reliable, up-to-date information, our ability to contribute to making sure every student in Canada has the opportunity to realize their potential is improved. SmartSAVER Executive Director, May Wong summed up this idea succinctly, “Families in need depend on community service providers to connect them to the help that’s available. The SmartSAVER program assists service providers by ensuring they have the information and tools they need to help families to access the Canada Learning Bond.” Pathways’ Community Mapping Tool has also been made available through SmartSAVER’s Community site.
Pathways to Education Canada encourages all interested organizations to share the CLB data with their partners as well as reach out to us. We invite you to work with us in improving this already powerful tool.
Steve Richter, MA / Researcher/Chercheur
Pathways to Education Canada/Passeport Pour Ma Réussite Canada
