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www.oakvillebeaver.com The Oakville Beaver, Tuesday December 23, 2008 - 5 Meeting the challenges By Angela Blackburn OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF S ometimes life can mete out some pretty harsh lessons -- all the tougher to manage when you're just a student trying to cope with school lessons. In what is reputed as affluent Oakville, here's what's going on this holiday season at a local high school ... -- A teenaged girl moves to town with nothing, to stay with relatives after her grandmother died and her older brother gave up his own high school education in an effort to continue raising his younger sister. -- A 16-year-old student, living on her own while attending high school, doesn't know what to do when her mom, a drug addict living elsewhere in the province, commits suicide one midnight and the girl wants to go to her mother's funeral. -- A boy who keeps wearing only a hoodie to school, when pressed by a school teacher, is loathe to disclose that he has no winter coat. -- Another boy's mom is struggling with rent and food, never mind bus fare, lunches and school trips, after raising two sons while working 25 years as a maid and is now pensioned with a low income after being in an accident. -- A boy whose family has just moved to town and has no phone, has a tough time staying in touch with school when he is absent from classes. This is all happening here -- a reputedly affluent town where luxury cars, large homes and kids who have access to lots that life has to offer, from X-box games and toys to brand-name clothes, are presumed the norm. Presumption here is key. Angela Saunders, a school social worker at T. A. Blakelock High School, said she has helped about 100 students of the 1,000 at the Rebecca Street school -- at least 10 per cent of the school population and says that's just the need she has discovered or those who have come forward asking for help. Saunders can offer help thanks to the Halton District School Board's Halton Learning Foundation and its Barriers to Learning program. It is designed to help eliminate financial barriers that can impede a child's education. It exists -- and is used -- not just at Blakelock, but in every high school and elementary school in Oakville, and across Halton. The program helps provide for small items that may otherwise hamper a normal day at school -- a bus pass, lunch money, school supplies or cash for a class trip. It is supported by the foundation, a community/school board partnership that was established to provide Halton students with the funds needed for enrichment, scholarships or eliminating barriers to simply functioning at school. To ease the burdens of life for some and help all kids get the education they need, the Halton District School Board -- and its community partners -- steps in with the Halton Learning Foundation and more particularly, its Barriers to Learning program. It is a respectful, non-intrusive fund that helps students, elementary or high school, buy a bus pass, have lunch or connect with warm clothes, school supplies, and money to participate in class events. "People don't realize I'm not normal," said 17-year-old Jessica (not her real name), a Grade 12 student at T.A. Blakelock. Jessica's mom is an addict and she hasn't seen her dad since she was three. Her grandmother raised Jessica from the time she was an infant, along with her brother, who is now 20. When her grandmother died, her brother struggled to continue raising his younger sister. When she was in Grade 8, Jessica left the performing arts school she had been attending elsewhere in the GTA while living with her grandma and moved to Oakville, with absolutely nothing, to live with her aunt who has a husband who travels a lot and two babies and wasn't necessarily prepared to have a teenaged girl. A natural leader, Jessica quickly became involved in lots of school activities -- she's a tutor, is in the drama and multicultural clubs, is on the school safety committee and dance team. She credits former T.A. Blakelock vice-principal Dean Barnes for helping her get acclimatized to her new school and involved. She wants to study psychology in university, but needs to land a scholarship or she won't be able to afford to attend. "It's a lot of work, but it's worth it in the end," said Jessica. MICHAEL IVANIN / SPECIAL TO THE BEAVER HELP IS AT HAND: High school social worker Angela Saunders chats with a mother and teen who are assisted by the Halton Learning Foundation's Barriers to Learning program. "Sometimes people lose dignity when they have to ask for help, but we all have to ask now and then." Angela Saunders, Social worker, Halton District School Board She was walking to and from school, often in the dark, sometimes didn't have access to lunch food and had trouble getting to school if she had to baby-sit her aunt's infants while her aunt had appointments. While she describes herself as "not normal," Jessica is very normal, definitely above average as she copes with experiencing some of the bad luck or harsh realities that life dishes out -- to everyone at some point in their life. She has just started out on that footing. And so Saunders stepped in with the Barriers to Learning program. "It helps with anything that prevents a student from learning," said Saunders, noting up to $250 can be made available to a student. Ease of access -- requests are made through a school social worker like Saunders and vouched for by the school principal -- and a respectfulness are hallmarks of the program, according to Saunders. An envelope is left at the school office for pickup by the student and a $50 bus pass or lunch vouchers get into the hands of a student who needs help. There's no shame, just a pickup and it's done, said Saunders. There is not a lot of onerous application paperwork or bureaucracy. "It's a very respectful, very dignified fund," said Saunders. "Sometimes people lose dignity when they have to ask for help, but we all have to ask now and then," said Saunders. Needing help when you find yourself on your own at age 12 or 17 is not shameful. "People tell me I'm a leader," smiled Jessica. "My friends say they find it easy to talk to me, maybe because of my past, they say I'm a great listener, but I never tell them what to do, that's their own choice." "She came here to Oakville without a choice and has made so much of her situation," said Saunders. Jessica is graduating this year and is taking her 20-year-old brother to her prom since he didn't get a chance to have one himself. Fending for herself in life is deja vu for an Oakville mom. While Jessica is graduating, Dawn's son has just begun Grade 9, but Dawn has spent her life working hard at a low-paying job to support and raise her two sons. Dawn was happy to see her son enter a school where Saunders is a school social worker as Dawn and Saunders have worked together at her son's elementary school. Dawn worked as a maid for 25 years See We page 10