A Crown Ward Education Championship Team has been created to help give crown wards a better shot at a post-secondary education.
Crown wards are children who are in the care of the Children’s Aid Society, who traditionally do not have the same educational outcomes as their peers.
The team consists of: St. Lawrence College; Loyalist College; Family and Children’s Services of Frontenac; Lennox and Addington; Highland Shores Children’s Aid; Queen’s University; and the University of Ottawa (U of O). These institutions signed an agreement Jan. 10 to support crown wards as they prepare for university.
“Post-secondary education can be a crucial stepping stone to get out of less than ideal circumstances,” U of O’s director of student academic success services Murray Sang said.
While making the transition from high school to university is a big step for any student, it is much more challenging for crown wards, according to John Suart, community relations officer with Family and Children Services of Frontenac, Lennox and Addington.
“The research is pretty clear that kids who are in [state] care in Ontario have greater needs and challenges once they come out of high school,” Suart said. “These kids often don’t have the same support system of a typical family, they need help getting into post-secondary education.”
This is particularly noticeable in the Frontenac, Lennox and Addington areas, he said.
“We have a larger proportion of crown wards in our area who are teens than many other children’s aid societies,” Suart said. “So we see this as a more prominent issue.”
The Ontario government partnered with post-secondary institutes throughout the province to create a 100 per cent tuition aid for Youth Leaving Care program, it announced in June 2013. Universities, colleges, children’s aid societies, and the government all contribute to fund this program, according to a press release from the Ministry of Training, Colleges, and Universities.
“The new agreement we’ve made comes at the end of a long and continuing process of Children’s Aid Societies identifying the needs of youth as they graduate out of care,” Suart said.
Suart said he hopes this will help make the support for these teens faster and better.
The agreement is ongoing and aims to provide practical support beyond funding. From assistance with academic upgrading to guidance about what program to go into and how to afford it all, the team will continue the work that has already been done, Suart said.
“Various groups already provide funding and there’s already a close relationship between these institutions, but this will allow for better co-ordination between these institutions to help youth move from one level to another,” he said.
Sang said U of O’s involvement will hopefully contribute to doing just that.
“We want to make them more than an applicant number,” Sang said. “We want to see them as an individual.”
