[Dialogue] Carolyn Acker is awarded the Order of Canada

[RICHARD HOWIE]

REPLICATION is such Good News!
Congratulations to one and all, Ellen
On Jul 4, 2012, at 6:25 PM, Jack Gilles wrote:

> Wayne,
>
> This is the living legacy we have so wanted to celebrate, and so we  
> do.  I often have said that the victories of others have been the  
> food for my soul.  I feel a great joy to have been connected with  
> this global effort and give thanks for you and all the colleagues  
> who have given so much of their lives to make miracles like this  
> happen.
>
> Thank you,
>
> Grace & Peace,
>
> Jack
>
> On Jul 4, 2012, at 10:06 AM, Wayne Nelson 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.
>>
>>
>>
>> \\/
>>
>> Visit - http://www.pathwaystoeducation.ca
>>
>>
>>
>> - - - - - - - - - - Wayne Nelson
>> wnelson at ica-associates.ca
>> O - 416-691-2316
>> M - 647-229-6910
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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