By Sherri Armstrong
Imagine being forced from your home at age 16 and having to live in a shelter and use a food bank. Imagine being 12 years old and having to wear the same worn-out clothes to school day after day.
Imagine how tough it would be to focus on learning when you’re hungry or worried about fitting in with your peers.
The Halton Learning Foundation (HLF) hears stories like these every day.
HLF is a small, independent charity with a mission to help eliminate these types of financial barriers for students of the Halton District School Board (HDSB) and help create a level playing field for learning.
About one in 10 kids in the HDSB comes from a family that is living at or below the poverty line due to low-paying jobs, job loss, divorce, illness, and other unexpected life events. Over the past year, many HDSB families who never needed support before have reached out for a helping hand after the pandemic shuttered businesses and cut jobs.
Food, clothing, and other basic necessities are critically important for ensuring kids come to school, stay in school, and stay engaged in learning. HLF provides emergency funds for these basic necessities within 24 hours of receiving a request from a teacher or a school social worker who knows the child or the family.
Besides the basics, there are additional educational consequences for students living in low-income households.
A lack of income for “other things” means students can get left behind on class trips or be left out of extra-curricular music and sports programs or even co-op opportunities. That means some doors are closed to those students — not because of lack of ability, but because of not having enough money. HLF provides subsidies so kids can access those learning opportunities along with their peers. Dozens of post-secondary scholarships are also available through HLF to help kids finance their ongoing educational journey.
The support provided by HLF may be small, but it represents opportunities that may not exist otherwise.
Take Ahmed, for instance. Once the lockdown ended in Halton, the Grade 7 student had to return his borrowed laptop to the school. He had no technology at home with which to complete homework assignments, leaving him at a learning disadvantage. HLF provided funds for a laptop computer, which has helped to bridge the digital divide. The laptop allowed him to complete his classroom assignments along with his peers, and gave him access to a virtual tutoring resource, which has had a huge impact on his comprehension of tasks.
Requests to HLF to support HDSB students in need have risen by more than 20% per year over the past three years.
Last school year, HLF provided financial help to 1400 students across Halton. The charity also provided a second helping hand to almost 200 students who had previously received support from HLF, but whose families were affected by the sudden workplace closures due to COVID-19.
Six months into the 2020–2021 school year, the Halton Learning Foundation is on track to report another record year of requests.
To learn more or to help support a student in our community, please visit haltonlearningfoundation.ca.
Sherri Armstrong is the communications manager for the Halton Learning Foundation.
