A Glimmer Of Hope

And I offer congratulations to those who have contributed to the successes but we seem in live in a society that thrives on "extreme makeovers" and only time will answer whether we are closer to a solution. The emphasis today seems to be on dealing with potential failures and we tend to ignore the fact that the majority of kids do integrate them into the mainstream of society.

A Toronto program claims to keep inner city kids in school and cut down on crime

Chris Selley | Jul 26, 2007 | 2:15 pm EST

It's nothing if not a feel-good story. Put together an aggressive, well-funded, common-sense educational support program for children in a low-income, high-crime neighbourhood and watch the positive results pour in. According to recent media reports, including an effusive Toronto Star editorial, that's just what Pathways to Education Canada did for secondary schools in Toronto's beleaguered Regent Park area.

"Six years after the program started offering academic support, mentoring and financial assistance to young people… the area's high-school dropout rate has plummeted from 56 per cent to only 10 per cent," the Star gushed, "significantly below city and provincial averages.

"At the same time, the proportion of young people from the area who go on to attend college or university has jumped from 20 per cent to an astonishing 80 per cent."

Pathways, which mentors 830 children in total, went further in a press release, taking at least partial credit for an enormous drop (75 per cent) in Regent Park's teenage birth rate, as well as significant declines in "crime rates in Police Division 51, which includes Regent Park and other adjacent neighbourhoods." The program "is doing an astoundingly good job," the Star concludes.