Putting folks on the right track

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 13/06/2011 (5452 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

ELEANOR Thompson frowns whenever the railway tracks come up.

The director of development for the Urban Circle aboriginal adult education centre on Selkirk Avenue, Thompson explains how the wide swath of steel rails and wooden beams the Canadian Pacific Railway operates in the heart of Winnipeg is the border between the city’s two great solitudes: the storied North End and the rest of the city.

“This is a very spatially segregated city,” Thompson said. “Those tracks are a big barrier, and people in the North End are not as mobile as you think.”

Only those who have walked across the Slaw Rebchuk Bridge in January will really know what Thompson is talking about. But look at any map and it becomes obvious the tracks both define and contain the North End.

In that context, Thompson said, it’s significant to note the main campuses of the University of Manitoba, the University of Winnipeg and Red River College — our institutions of higher learning and opportunity — are south of those tracks. It physically and psychologically separates the people of the North End from higher education, she said. “Many people in the North End, even if they wanted to go to university, just won’t cross over the tracks.”

But there is hope, and it is hope born of North-End ingenuity. On one of Winnipeg’s saddest streets, in one of the city’s most troubled neighbourhoods, a more perfect educational model has emerged. On two blocks on the north side of Selkirk Avenue immediately west of Salter Avenue, three educational institutions are working hand-in-hand-in-hand to create opportunities that would otherwise never be available to youth and adults in this part of the city.

At the Urban Circle, at 519 Selkirk Ave., adult students can finish their Grade 12 diploma or attend a number of programs in partnership with Red River College to train as a health care aide/unit clerk, an educational assistant, a family support worker with focus on Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, or an early childhood educator.

Urban Circle is also home to the U of W’s urban and inner-city studies program.

Just a short walk east, at 485 Selkirk Ave., you come to the William Norrie Centre, home to the University of Manitoba’s successful inner-city social work program, which has graduated nearly 500 students in its 30-year history.

Just a few short steps beyond that is Pathways to Education, a national mentoring and family support program for high school students run in Winnipeg by the Community Education Development Association. Pathways provides enrolled students with tutors, mentors and liaison support to keep the youth, their families and the schools in contact with each other. At the successful completion of Grade 12, Pathways students are eligible for a $4,000 grant to be used toward tuition and supplies at a post-secondary institution.

Urban Circle, in particular, demonstrates the value of tailoring education to the needs of the students, rather than fitting students into a predetermined educational culture and environment. At Urban Circle, all enrollees regardless of program have to take a life-skills course. All graduates of the mature Grade 12 diploma program have an opportunity to participate in the RRC certificate programs.

Starting this fall, Urban Circle will finish construction on a $2.6-million daycare centre right next door. The centre will provide spaces for the children of Urban Circle students, while helping train students in the early childhood education program.

If there is a dark cloud over Urban Circle, it is the struggle to find program funding. There is fairly stable funding from the province, but it only covers part of the overhead of operating the centre. RRC, despite offering the certificates for programming at Urban Circle, does not provide any funding. The city and federal government have provided support, but it has been short-term.

Thompson said the inability to secure stable, long-term funding is a constant frustration, especially given Urban Circle’s record of success. More than 80 per cent of entrants finish their chosen program and extremely high numbers in the certificate programs find work in their chosen field. “This has all grown from the ground up with no grand scheme about how to meet the community’s needs,” said Jim Silver, head of the U of W’s urban and inner-city studies program. “We’ve proven that it works, that it can turn lives around. Despite that, there isn’t enough money.”

Together, the three facilities have achieved a critical mass. Students who begin with Pathways or the Urban Circle’s Grade 12 diploma program can seamlessly transition to the RRC certificate programs or the U of M’s inner-city social work program or the U of W’s urban and inner-city studies program.

This was, remarkably, the exact path that Darlene Klyne took. In 1996, one of Klyne’s daughters completed the Urban Circle health-care unit clerk course. In 2000, Klyne, who had never finished high school, attended Urban Circle and then the U of M’s social-work program down the street. And now, just a few doors down from there, she is serving as the program director for Pathways.

“I do think sometimes, if I had finished my high school the first time, what could I have accomplished?” Klyne said. “I could have had 30 years more out in the community doing good work. So I share my story with people. I tell them it’s never too late.”

dan.lett@freepress.mb.ca