In 2001, Toronto’s Regent Park community had a 56 per cent dropout rate. More than half of the young people were giving up on school and allowing themselves to become another statistic in the cycle of poverty that has affected this and other neighbourhoods throughout the city.

It’s also in 2001 that the story of Pathways to Education Canada begins. A program founded by the Regent Park Community Health Centre, “Pathways” took aim at the dropout epidemic afflicting the young people in Regent Park.

Since Pathways began, the dropout rate has been cut to 10 per cent for the program participants – now totalling over 830 students in Regent Park, representing more than 90 per cent of the youth in that community.

“The improved graduation rates are impressive, but it is even more exciting to see that their participation in post-secondary education has quadrupled, going from 20 per cent to 80 percent,” explains David Hughes, the President & CEO of Pathways to Education Canada.

“And these results simply wouldn’t have been possible without the strategic investments made by our partners, including the Toronto Community Foundation. “This may sound like philanthropy, but it’s much more. It’s a sound investment. The Boston Consulting Group undertook a detailed study of the Pathways program and concluded that its Social Return on Investment was valued at $25 dollars back to society for every dollar invested in the program,” adds Hughes.

Based on these outcomes, the Toronto Community Foundation awarded Pathways to Education a Vital Ideas grant in 2005 to conduct research into expanding the program into similar neighbourhoods. Two years later Pathways received a second Vital Ideas grant to assist in replicating the idea into the Rexdale and Lawrence Heights neighbourhoods.

Since 2007, Pathways has expanded into a provincial and then a national organization, taking with them the learning from helping to heal one of Toronto’s toughest neighbourhoods to share with the rest of Canada. Pathways presently operates in eight communities: four locations in Toronto, Kitchener, Ottawa, Hamilton and Montreal. Initial data reported from their second generation sites in Ontario and Quebec show that the organization is on track to achieve results which are as good as or better than achieved in their Regent Park project.

As a result of its success on the ground Pathways to Education continues to expand its network of supporters receiving grants from United Way Toronto, the Ontario Government, private funders and numerous Fundholders at the Toronto Community Foundation. Beyond their work in Ontario and Quebec they are now in discussions with governments and community agencies which want the program across the country.