[Dialogue] Carolyn Acker is awarded the Order of Canada

[Nan Hudson]

Hi Wayne,

Thanks for this background...I knew she had been awarded the Order of
Canada, but not the background to the story!

Thanks

Nan


On 12-07-04 11:06 AM, "Wayne Nelson" <wnelson at ica-associates.ca> wrote:

> 
> Sometime around 1990, Pat Tuecke and Gary Forbes did a workshop on strategic
> planning at an Organizational Development conference in Toronto.  On the
> Monday following that event, I got a call from Carolyn Acker. She had been in
> that workshop and she wanted to talk with us.  Carolyn was the Executive
> Director of the Regent Park Community Health Centre.  Regent Park is a large
> neighborhood of subsidized housing. No commerce or anything of that nature -
> apartment buildings and social services. Like a London housing estate or a
> cleaner, low rise Pruitt-Eigo or Cabrini Green. Most residents on social
> assistance, gangs, teen pregnancy etc.
> 
> Duncan Holmes and I went to see her and Jo facilitated their strategic
> planning. It included everyone in the organization and was, over the next
> year, extremely successful. The whole organization changed and was enlivened.
> The place was brighter and more in tune with the community. We worked with
> Carolyn and the health centre for many years. Some events were focused on the
> planning - implementation cycle. Some were more specific. We facilitated the
> development of an early childhood development program led by parents. We did
> facilitator training with staff and board and in some of their program areas.
> 
> In one of the workshops, a brand new idea surfaced. Carolyn has always said
> that health clinics do not make a community healthy. They had been engaged in
> a great deal of malaise prevention and  health promotion activities and had
> the clinic (a brand spankin' new one that was part of the planning) running
> really well, yet they felt that the situation in the community was still
> deteriorating.  Carolyn looked at the "Determinants of Health", a framework
> that identifies the factors that contribute to healthiness in a population.
> They run all the way from air quality to a sense of empowerment to participate
> in shaping one's life. She looked and said there are two that are extremely
> obvious and basic that are in pretty bad shape around here - income level and
> education. Regent Park was at the bottom of both with all the down stream
> problems associated with poverty.
> 
> By the end of the workshop, the group drafted the initial image for the
> "Pathways to Education" program.    It is a wrap-around program that helps
> kids get through school and get the best education possible. It engages
> students, parents and teachers in a focus on each student in the program.  The
> program involves academic, social and financial support as well as 1 to 1
> mentoring and coaching.
> 
> It has been massively successful and is being replicated across Canada and in
> the US.
> 
>> Average youth participation rates of over 85%
>> 
>> High school graduation rates among participants in the program have more than
>> doubled
>> 
>> High school dropout rates have declined by over 70%
>> 
>> The rate of students going on to college or university has increased by 300%
>> 
>> The program generates a $24 social return for every $1 invested
> We are deeply pleased to see Carolyn inducted into the Order of Canada. What
> an amazing contribution she has made. Perhaps Carolyn's key quality is her
> compassion and her powerful persistence in pursuing a vision. It was great to
> be there when the spark of 'I can see some allies' was lit for her. It has
> been amazing to work with the dizzzying variety of people in that community.
> It is great to be a part of something that is actually re-structuring a
> community and breaking the poverty cycle. There are a whole lot of people who
> can see their way into a more human life.
> 
> 
> 
> \\/ <smb:///> 
> 
> Visit - http://www.pathwaystoeducation.ca
> 
> 
> 
> - - - - - - - - - - Wayne Nelson
> wnelson at ica-associates.ca
> O - 416-691-2316
> M - 647-229-6910
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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