The following summarizes the highlights of our Adult Education Regional Partnership Agreement with the Seven Generations Education Institute.
In September 2012, the Keewatin-Patricia District School Board and Seven Generations Education Institute embarked on a partnership to deliver adult education throughout Northwestern Ontario. The goals of the partnership include:
- Increasing opportunities for both indigenous and non-indigenous adult learners throughout the KPDSB and SGEI communities to achieve the Ontario Secondary School Diploma
- Improving access for adult learners to high-quality curriculum resources on a full- or part-time basis
- Committing to excellence and innovation in serving the needs of adult learners
We have worked cooperatively to share our partnership work at CESBA (Continuing Education School Boards Association), presenting, sharing, and advocating for quality, regional adult education programs. We formally recognize SGEI as our partner in adult education and have highlighted the unique and complex nature of the Kenora/Rainy River regions west of Thunder Bay, including the inclusion of Indigenous partners and the importance of these partnerships beyond the traditional school board funding models. We have shared our successes and our learnings from our KPDSB/SGEI Adult Education Partnership Graduate Exit Survey (2019):
- Over 30% of our adult students are over the age of 35 – it’s never too late to earn your diploma.
- About 59% of our students voluntarily self-identify as FNMI, and 25% of our students speak Ojibway or Oji-Cree at home – our Language Circles are key to preserving language and developing a sense of culture and belonging in our Adult Education classrooms. Adult students earn language credits for participating or speaking their language.
- The majority (>75%) of our students are highly motivated to earn their diplomas. Over half of our students only have 5–6 credits to earn and spend less than six months with us to meet their diploma requirements – most of our students are closer than they think to graduation! About 67% of our graduates identify a sense of responsibility to family and maturity as critical to helping them graduate.
- Our Adult Education programs change lives; 58% of our students are headed to college or post-secondary education.
In 2020 and 2021, 550 adults registered in our Adult Education programs, and we worked cooperatively as administrators, teachers, and site monitors to offer a variety of programs and supports. At our fastest-growing site, the Sioux Lookout Adult Education Program, we host full-time teacher and site monitor support in a family-friendly, comfortable, adult learning environment.
Continued relationships across the KPDSB region with educational, community, and agency-specific partners assist in providing wrap-around supports that reduce barriers for our adult students. Our partners include Kwayaciiwin Education Resource Center, Sioux Lookout Area Aboriginal Management Board, Ontario Native Women’s Association, Independent First Nations Alliance, Adult Basic Literacy, Indian Friendship Centers, Northwest Employment Works, Ontario Works, Supportive Housing, Homeward Bound Program, The Metis Nation of Ontario, Lac Seul First Nation, and many others. With the Dryden Native Friendship Center, our students can access employment counselling on-site. We continue to develop and strengthen partnerships with municipalities and First Nations communities to improve access and supports for adult learners.
Launched in 2020, our new website www.nwoadulted.com has become a very popular and convenient resource for busy adult clients regionwide to visit for adult education registration, promotion, information and pathway guidance. Housed online in a web-based portal, potential students can access site-specific adult education programs, graduate success stories, information about our KPDSB/SGEI partnership, post-secondary opportunities, an adult education credit calculator, and contact information for our adult education sites.
2020–2021 Dual Credit opportunities support transitions to college programs and engage and motivate adult students who express interest in our communities’ post-secondary programs. With Confederation College, we offer a dual-credit program in which all of our adult education sites could participate jointly. Seven students completed the dual-credit course PPI4T: Wellness for Life through Confederation College, offered online virtually to all adult ed sites. The major areas of study for the Wellness for Life course were the physical, social, intellectual, occupational, emotional, environmental, and spiritual dimensions of health. This was a popular topic considering various struggles for adult learners during COVID-19. Red Lake: With adult education services expanding to two sites in Red Lake, the establishment of a three-year contract with Red Lake Adult Literacy Centre, and a continuation of our service-provider agreement at Red Lake Indian Friendship Center, we support day school adult courses, after-school tutorial services for RLDHS students, and OSSD credit opportunities for their parents.
