About the Pathways to Education Program

Following an extensive community engagement process and a successful model in Regent Park, Pathways to Education program in Lawrence began in the fall of 2007 with local youth entering grade 9. The program focuses on providing after school support to help youth achieve their full potential by completing high school and investing in their futures.

Pathways aims to significantly reduce the high school dropout rate and increase the chances of local youth pursuing post-secondary education and developing career options. The program is available, at no cost, to high school students (ages 14-23) living in the Lawrence heights and Neptune Drive communities. Pathways provides students with four areas of support: academic, career, social/advocacy and financial.

Youth Development Worker (YDW)

Each student registered in the Pathways program is assigned a Youth Development Worker (YDW) who works closely with students, parents and schools to provide support to students.

YDWs work one on one with students to monitor school attendance, academic progress along with facilitation of the tutoring and mentoring program. YDWs also attend the students’ high schools to meet with them and to collaborate with teachers, principals, vice-principals, guidance counsellors, attendance staff, and other school officials concerning student success.

Mentoring

Mentoring assists students in a variety of areas including empowerment, one-on-one career coaching, employment skills, community involvement and post-secondary transitional support. Group mentoring takes place for grade 9 and 10 students and career/speciality mentoring takes place for grade 11 and 12 students.

Tutoring

Tutoring provides high school students with academic support in Math, Science, Social Science, English and French. The program runs after school every Monday to Thursday.

Financial support

Students are provided with financial support for participating in the program through TTC tickets, school lunch vouchers, and post-secondary education scholarships.

Volunteers

Volunteers are an important component of the pathways program and essential to our success. If you would like to volunteer with Pathways, please complete a volunteer registration form.