Community Knowledge Centre - Toronto Community Foundation

About this organization

Mission

We are the Toronto Foundation for Student Success. We exist to help students succeed. We address issues of poverty, hunger and poor nutrition, and their effect on education. We continually search for new ways to help children overcome barriers to success in school. We are advocates for children, lobbying and acting on their behalf.

History of Organization

Founded in 1998, The Toronto Foundation for Student Success (TFSS) is a registered charitable foundation of the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) created to ensure that all students are ready and able to learn in classrooms. The TFSS operates independently from the TDSB. Thanks to the office space and support provided by the TDSB our administration costs are less than 5% allowing us to invest a minimum of 95% of all funds raised in most programs and a full 100% in student nutrition programs. For over eleven years, the TFSS has been building partnerships with the Federal, Provincial and Municipal governments, the TDSB, concerned corporations and foundations, other NGO’s, private individuals, families, and the many diverse communities within Toronto, to draw on the enthusiasm and expertise needed to execute its programs. The TFSS acts as an advocate for students, identifying and initiating programs to deal with the hunger, poverty and violence experienced by students and our programs have expanded over the years as the need has escalated. In 1999 the TFSS was nourishing 11,000 children every day. Today, in 2010, we are supporting 107,000 children.

Accolades and Accomplishments

• The TFSS helps support over 600 breakfast, lunch and snack programs which nourish over 100,000 children each school day.
• Our Feeding Our Future Secondary School Nutrition Program was the first universal breakfast program in the province of Ontario and provides breakfast daily to approximately 5,800 hungry teens. TDSB research indicates that this program has helped our youth achieve improved behaviour, attendance and higher academic scores.
• Our Beyond 3:30 program is an innovative after school program for adolescents that not only keeps them feel safe after school but also teaches them new skills such as playing musical instruments, healthy cooking and menu planning, painting, sports, etc.  Originally started in six schools in high-risk, priority neighbourhoods throughout the GTA, the number of community sites has now expanded to ten. 
• Since 2006, we have secured sustained core funding, growing the Sprott Asset Management Gift of Sight and Sound program 300% for the elementary aged students. This program provides vision screening from international medical graduates and hearing screening from Canadian Hearing Society on site, in schools.  Research has shown us that schools are the places that parents trust the most, especially new Canadians.  Free glasses and hearing support devices are provided.

Programs

>Sprott Asset Management Gift of Sight and Sound Program
>Model Schools Paediatric Health Initiative
>Beyond 3:30

• Feeding Our Future: Hungry children can’t learn.  TFSS helps support over 600 breakfast, lunch and snack programs, nourishing over 107,000 children each school day.  These programs contribute to improved school attendance, behaviour and academic success.

• Sprott Asset Management Gift of Sight & Sound: In the Model Schools for Inner Cities, Toronto’s most “at risk” communities”, this program provides vision and hearing screenings, optometry clinics and documents immediate results. 

• Beyond 3:30: A safe after school haven for students who are not only fed but also have the chance to learn new skills and engage in extra curricular activities.

• Optimal Outcomes Childcare Consultation: a program funded by the City of Toronto through the TFSS for families with special needs children.

• Model School Paediatric Health Initiative:  This pilot is in its formative stages, aiming to open school-based medical clinics to serve children in the Model Schools for Inner Cities Program.

• TFSS Apple Program:  1 million Ontario apples are delivered to 125 schools every year.  Apple deliveries happen twice per week, during the school year.

• TFSS Adopt A School Program:  Many companies and individuals adopt breakfast programs in our schools, volunteering and also providing nutritious breakfasts, through monthly donations, to some of Toronto’s most vulnerable children.

Sprott Asset Management Gift of Sight and Sound Program

This program serves children in Toronto’s most “at-risk” communities. In the TDSB Model Schools for Inner Cities, it provides free vision and hearing screening, follow-up optometry clinics, and a tracking of the immediate results of these screenings and optometrist appointments. Through partnerships with Walmart Canada and Canadian Hearing Society, the program provides free glasses and hearing devices for children who require them. The program hires International Medical Graduates as vision screeners and clinic coordinators to provide an opportunity for newcomers with medical expertise to work in their field while pursuing provincial certification. The program also pays the Optometrists for children who do not have OHIP or IFH coverage. Most importantly, this program addresses the fact that academic and social success are difficult to achieve if a child cannot hear or see clearly!

Funding and Program Partners

This program operates in partnership with the TDSB Model Schools for Inner Cities Program. Funding partners include the Sprott Asset Management firm which provides core funding for the program. Walmart Canada contributes $400,000 of optician and optometry services, equipment, supplies and eyewear. The Canadian Hearing Society oversees hearing screenings, providing personnel and equipment; and serves students referred to an audiologist from the screenings. Other donors include a private Foundation and the Paloma Foundation.

Program Impact

To date (31/03/10) in the 2009-2010 school year, over 12,000 children have been screened. 28% of children have been referred for further vision assessment – 75% of whom have received the glasses they require free of charge. 15% of the children have been referred for further hearing assessment – and seven children have been identified with hearing loss. The program aim is not only to document the immediate and life-changing results, but to also track over the longer term the program’s impact on student success.

Toronto's Vital Signs® indicator(s) addressed by Program

“Toronto is a City of disparities and increasingly localized poverty, where health, employment prospects and access to basic services are linked to neighbourhood income levels.” (Toronto’s Vital Signs®, 2009)

This program is built on the knowledge that poverty interrupts both student success and health. As the Toronto’s Vital Signs report states, nowhere does this become more glaringly apparent than in the most ‘at-risk’ school communities. By hiring International Medical Graduates the Program also acknowledges that “success for immigrants will be vital to the City’s future well being.” (Toronto’s Vital Signs®, 2009)

Participant Vignette

A little girl received her free glasses this fall at a school in Scarborough. The Optician asked before placing the glasses on the child, ‘What do you see out the window?’ The little girl replied, “I see a tree”. After fitting her glasses, the Optician asked, “Now, what do you see.” The little girl almost shrieked, “Oh boy! I see leaves and their different colours! I see the tree trunk! And, oh, I see a bird. Look! I see a bird in that tree!” She promptly hugged the Optician and Community Support Worker, and began to dance! Young lives have been changed through the hearing screening/referral process. For example, one student was found with paper deep down in her canal causing her to not hear properly; another student had 90% hearing loss in one ear and will require a hearing device to support her ability to hear properly; and a third child needed surgery. If it wasn't for the clinic, these situations may never have been recognized or may have worsened before being identified.

Model Schools Paediatric Health Initiative

The Model Schools Pediatric Health Initiative arose out of a concern about health access inequities and disparities among some of Toronto’s most vulnerable children living in our inner city neighborhoods. Families living in poverty face a number of barriers to accessing health care. We have learned through the Gift of Sight and Sound program that 11.5% of children do not have valid OHIP cards; 85% of children who require further hearing assessment need to first see a Physician and because many families with OHIP do not have a family doctor this follow-up is not always done; and less than 10% of families referred to an Audiologist at CHS made it downtown to the appointment as both transportation and language barriers were just too great for many to overcome. This Initiative recognizes the school as an innovative access point for children facing barriers to health care to receive the services they need in the most direct and efficient way, including diagnosis, management and follow up of multiple health and developmental concerns. The Initiative is a pilot project in its early, formative stages. The aim of the pilot is to open school-based medical clinics in priority neighbourhoods to serve children in the Model Schools for Inner Cities.

Funding and Program Partners

This program operates in partnership with the TDSB Model Schools for Inner Cities Program. A private individual donation provided seed funding. St. Michael’s Hospital is offering service provision at the first clinic site within this Initiative. The Hospital for Sick Children has taken the lead on the Initiative’s advisory committee, bringing together other health and academic sector partners to provide guidance on this program’s development. This Initiative is in need of a major partner and champion committed to making this initiative viable beyond its time as a pilot.

Program Impact

The impact of this innovative approach to accessing health care has yet to be determined. From what we have learned through the Gift of Sight and Sound Program referrals, in previous years we lost up to 50% of students in tracking their follow-up results when they were sent out into the community to get the services, eyewear and hearing devices they required. By bringing the vision screening follow-up clinics with optometrists, opticians and glasses+ into the schools, we have been able to track over 90% of the results and ensure the needed services for vision are received. We anticipate the same if we can get medical professionals in to the schools for further hearing assessment.

Toronto's Vital Signs® indicator(s) addressed by Program

“Toronto is a City of disparities and increasingly localized poverty, where health, employment prospects and access to basic services are linked to neighbourhood income levels.” (Toronto’s Vital Signs®, 2009)

This program is built on the knowledge that poverty interrupts both student success and health. As the Toronto’s Vital Signs® report states, nowhere does this become more glaringly apparent than in the most ‘at-risk’ school communities.

Participant Vignette

A student in Middle School had been screened for vision and hearing two consecutive years. Each year a referral to a physician and audiologist were made. Each year, the follow-up appointment did not happen. Each year school administrators, teachers and support staff worked with the family to encourage them to attend the community-based appointment. Many of their meetings required a translator. There was tremendous concern on the part of the family that a hearing loss would mean more bills to pay, and a strong belief that their child would do okay through school without further assessment. Finally, with close and careful school support, the family did go to the necessary appointment. A diagnosis of hearing loss was made, free devices are being secured and this child’s academic and social well-being is on an exciting new path. Imagine with an accessible, trusted school-location, how many families will more readily access the services they require and not lose time in shaping a more enriching pathway to student success for their children!

Beyond 3:30

Beyond 3:30 provides students the opportunity to succeed, in an exciting new way, by providing programming to children whose families might not be able to afford extra-curricular learning opportunities. Beyond 3:30 operates in nine middle schools within the TDSB Model Schools for Inner Cities Program. The program engages ‘at-risk’ students in activities such as homework club, sports, book club, junior chefs club, sports, drama, dance and visual arts during the critical hours between 3:30-8:00pm. All programs are coordinated by young grads and university students with the capacity of becoming mentors and role models for Beyond 3:30 participants.

Beyond 3:30 has provided a ‘hand-up’ to the students involved, their parents, the schools and ultimately the community. We provide a safe place for our participants where they are mentored by staff and volunteers to develop positive social skills like cooperation, compassion, decision making and conflict resolution. The parents are happy to know that a safe environment is provided for their children when they might still be at work.

Funding and Program Partners

This program operates in partnership with the TDSB Model Schools for Inner Cities Program. The Toronto Community Foundation has provided initial financial support and leveraged thousands of in-kind resources and services. The Ministry of Health Promotion provided essential funding for expansion last year for some sites.

We partner with Arts for Children, York University, George Brown College, Regent Park School of Music, SAP, the Weston Foundation, Indigo Books, Gilden, Loblaws, Doorsteps, York University Teacher Candidates – All sites, Malvern Family Resource Centre – Dr. Marion Hilliard, Thorncliffe Neighbourhood Office – Valley Park, Shakespeare in Action – Rockcliffe, Big Brothers Big Sisters – Rockcliffe, De-Railed Theatre Collective – Dr. Marion Hilliard & Lawrence Heights, Royal Conservatory of Music – Smithfield, OISE graduate students – Lawrence Heights, The Achievers – San Romanoway – Brookview, R.I.S.E. – Brookview. Attorney General – Rockcliffe & Dr. Marion Hilliard, Think First - National Injury Prevention Program – Rockcliffe, Anonymous Foundation – Rockcliffe, Canadian Diabetes Society – All Schools, Toronto Public Heath – Rockcliffe, Dr. Marion Hilliard, Lawrence Heights.

Numerous community members, parents & volunteers!

Program Impact

Since the beginning of Beyond 3:30 staff have witnessed an increase in compassion, more effective communication skills and better solutions to conflicts. The children also have a stronger sense of belonging and security. Parents report that their children have become more social at home, have improved their view of school and are starting to benefit academically as a result of the help they receive with their homework. The children have been able to make new friends and deepen their sense of belonging in their own school community.

Toronto's Vital Signs® indicator(s) addressed by Program

“After-school programs make a critical difference in safety and skill development: In the higher-risk hours between 3 and 6 PM, unsupervised children are more likely to engage in gang-related or delinquent behaviour, or become victims of crime.” (Toronto’s Vital Signs®, 2009)

Beyond 3:30 offers a positive environment for middle school children who are going through the transition from child to adult. Children feel safe and create a sense of community and belonging in the one place most students trust the most, their school. By providing programming focussed on healthy living and learning opportunities in the arts in high priority neighbourhoods, Beyond 3:30 provides vulnerable students the same opportunities as others in Toronto.

Participant Vignette

Marie said she was ‘made’ by her mother to go to the Beyond 3:30 program two days a week because of the homework club. Marie was not happy about this at first but she came anyway. The next time I saw Marie she had a changed attitude and had increased the number of days she was attending the program. As she said: “I like that I can get my homework done and my mom is happy, and then I get to play sports, do the mural, learn guitar and lots of other fun stuff. I’m here almost every day now and I have lots of great friends!” When Sam, a student from the behavioural class, started the program he would not interact with the other students and would only speak to staff when he was addressed directly. He would often say that he didn’t have any homework and would refuse to take part in any group. He now focuses, is a team player and takes great pride in the meals he helps to create in the Junior Chefs Club. He “glows” when other students compliment his team’s meal. He now interacts with other students and participates in all group activities. He is completing his homework and has even initiated conversations with Beyond 3:30 staff.