Smartsaver Community

Over the last three years, Smart Start Halton has proven, through its results, that collective impact works. A broad collaboration of community partners, Smart Start Halton came together with the intention to increase the dismal take-up rates for the Canada Learning Bond in Halton. The goal was to help eligible Halton families register their children for the Canada Learning Bond and to ensure every child has the opportunity to access postsecondary education. The Halton Poverty Roundtable has served as the backbone support organization for this initiative.

June Cockwell, Co-Chair of Smart Start Halton, applauded the efforts of the partner community organizations who stepped up to the challenge. “Rallying partners around this initiative was extremely easy once stakeholders understood the very real opportunity we had to shift the trajectory of the almost 15,000 children who were eligible and not registered for the Canada Learning Bond.” From hosting sign-up events, to engaging political leadership to communicate the opportunity, and providing training sessions to government, business and community partners to ensure there was a clear understanding of the CLB sign-up process, partners have worked tirelessly to make Canada Learning Bond information a part of their intake process with families and parents. The introduction of the SmartSAVER portal has been an amazing tool to support sign-up here in Halton. Families know they can go online to begin the process and they have choice when it comes to a banking partner.

Since 2013, Smart Start Halton has increased the take-up rates for the Canada Learning Bond from 28% to 39%. “We’re committed to bringing the free Bond to the attention of every family in this community,” says Regional Chair Gary Carr. “We’re delighted that this cause is being taken up by a broad coalition of front-line community agencies.”  With new children being born every day, and the population in Halton having experienced growth to the tune of 20% over the last three years, the team knows there is still work to be done to reach those families and children, so the work continues.

The Halton Poverty Roundtable is a cross sector network of local community leaders that was formed in 2011 to address the systemic barriers and root causes of poverty.  The Halton Poverty Roundtable mobilizes community resources and stakeholders around innovative community-driven solutions to eliminate poverty in Halton.

Leena Sharma Seth, Director, Community Engagement
Halton Poverty Roundtable

www.smartstarthalton.com

* This post was originally published Jun 7, 2016.

I was recently at an RESP and Canada Learning Bond sign-up event at a local elementary school and, after the event, I was chatting with the school’s principal. He told me how worried he is for many of his students due to lack of funding, and in particular to cuts to programs that are designed to excite children about future educational opportunities. He said he is also concerned that many children will leave the K-12 school system without a clear direction for their future and about the impact that might have on the community.  

While I can understand his views, I am very hopeful about the future for children in Canada. Perhaps that is due to the work that I do promoting the Canada Learning Bond on behalf of Vancouver Island University. Every day I am reaching into the community with the support of organizations like SmartSAVER to let people know that the federal government has money set aside for the post-secondary aspirations of children in our communities who are most in need.  

A typical day involves coming up with fun and creative ways to get the message out. For instance, I recently invited 100 Grade 2 students from a local school to visit our university campus to play with marine touch tanks and watch a science show where they were able to “blow up” a garbage can. The goal of these activities is to excite their imagination about attending university.

I have partnered with organizations that are working tirelessly to make sure that families in our community have the supports they need. These partners are thrilled to find out that there is up to $2,000 set aside for low-income families with young children and they can’t wait to get off the phone with me and email every single one of their clients.

And then there are those really special days when I sign-up 20 children and youth living in the foster care system for Canada Learning Bonds, or help a single dad – who is working two jobs and fighting to make it all work – open up RESPs for his two daughters. On those days, I know there is hope because I hear it in their voices and I see it in their faces.

I think that hope lives in places where we might not look for it. For me, hope takes the form of the Canada Learning Bond which makes it possible for children living in low-income families to start dreaming about what they are going to be when they grow up.

Rolanda Murray,
Canada Learning Bond Coordinator,
Vancouver Island University

To find out more about what we are up to, visit viu.ca/clb

* This post was originally published on May 26, 2016.