www.insideHALTON.com | OAKVILLE BEAVER | Thursday, October 13, 2016 | 30 Growing up poor Child poverty in Ontario | Metroland Media Growing up poor Jonathan Zettel Reka Szekely Todd Vandonk Melinda Cheevers Child poverty in Ontario Growing Up Poor: Child Poverty in Ontario is a Metroland Media Special Investigative Series, a four-part project, that explores the critical mass of children living in poverty across Ontario and the critical need for change. Many children in Canada -- across Ontario -- are growing up poor. Hundreds of breakfast programs at schools across the province are proof, but they are a short-term answer, not a solution. They do offer a glimpse into the problem of child poverty and where solutions could be found. This four-part Metroland Special Investigative Series spotlights child poverty -- and looks behind it -- to reveal problems in order to identify solutions. While Toronto -- child poverty capital of Canada -- has embarked on a Poverty Reduction Strategy... what about the rest of the province? This report looks outside of T.O., from the tourist hotspot of Niagara Falls and wealthy 'burbs like Oakville, to Owen Sound and Oshawa. While statistics vary, they remain shocking. Many -- too many -- kids in Ontario are growing up poor. Why? How do we fix it? Hundreds of thousands of Canadian children are growing up in poverty. In Ontario, more than 370,000 children (or 13.8 percent) lived in a low-income household in 2013, only slightly better than the national average of 14.3 per cent. Studies suggest poverty limits a child's future. It often means food insecurity, an inability to fully participate at school, a lack of positive activities and difficulty accessing services, such as eye and dental care, even post-secondary education. According to UNICEF , the child poverty rate for industrial countries ranges from five per cent in Iceland to 25 per cent in Romania. Canada ranks in the middle. In 1989, the federal government vowed to eradicate child poverty by the year 2000, yet little progress has been made. The cold hard facts on child poverty in Oshawa by Reka Szekely Metroland Media OSHAWA -- Bobby Orr Public School is located in south Oshawa -- just a few blocks from the General Motors plant that has shed thousands of well-paying manufacturing jobs in the past decade, leaving many in the area precariously employed. When school principal Kevina Morrison enters a Grade 5 classroom, the kids are using laptops and tablets to research an animal they've each selected and they're eager to share what they've learned. Did she know that Tasmanian devils are nocturnal and were named an endangered species in 2008? asks one student. Another shows her pages filled with notes and diagrams on tree frogs. "What I see from the students are kids that are competitive, that want to be successful, kids that see a future for themselves," says Morrison of her school. Bobby Orr is part of the Lakeview neighbourhood, a priority neighbourhood identified through the Region of Durham's Health Neighbourhoods program. Early childhood development indicators show twice as many children in Lakeview are vulnerable when it comes to physical health, emotional maturity and language and cognitive development. More than a third --38.4 per cent -- of children under the age of six live in a low-income household, a rate three times the average in Durham Region. Make a Difference in `priority neighbourhood' In 2013, Bobby Orr became one of 12 schools in Oshawa to be selected for the Make a Difference program, created by the Durham District School Board (DDSB) as a response to rates of poverty two or three times higher than average in Durham. "It's a call to action for us to do something and to look at what we can do next to support our students, our families and the schools," said Lisa It's no secret education is the great equalizer. If we begin to address poverty early on, there's a direct correlation to graduation rates in high school. principal, Bobby Orr Public School, Oshawa Kevina Morrison Millar, superintendent of education operations for the DDSB, adding the template for the program is something the board is now sharing with others in Ontario. Millar explains there's a great deal of research that shows poverty has a negative impact on early learning and success in school. "What we find is that if we don't do initiatives like Make a Difference, and we don't put academic interventions in place, students aren't going to improve." The Make a Difference program takes a broad approach and includes training for teachers, early childhood education before kids enter school to make sure they're ready, supporting child nutrition through breakfast and snack programs, the creation of parent literacy centres, mental health support and oral language programs aimed at young children. "You're not going to be able to read and write unless you can speak first," points out Morrison. Millar says it's no secret education is the great equalizer. "If we begin to address poverty early on, there's a direct correlation to graduation rates in high school," she said. When it comes to poverty support, there is no uniform level of service across the province's schools. In Durham, some extra support is funded by the Province, but a lot of it comes from the 28 community organizations.