Leamington sisters defy odds to graduate high school
Leamington and west Windsor students who are not expected to graduate high school and move on to post-secondary careers are beating the odds, with the help of United Way/Centraide Windsor-Essex County.
In 2015, the United Way chose 20 students in Leamington to participate in a pilot project called 'On Track to Success'. There are now 125 students in that program.
Every day when students are dismissed from school, United Way steps in through tutoring, mentoring in the home, or special activities.
"We try to be that consistent role model there to help support them, so whether they need help getting to school, getting that call or text to just boost their confidence," said Liam Giles-Hayes director of Programs with United Way. "Just make sure they know someone's in their corner supporting them and just making sure the do the best that they can."
Giles-Hayes said he has intervened during extremely sensitive moments in a family's life to keep a teenager on track.
"Whether that be that kid was looking after younger siblings, they were working long hours at a part-time job in the evening, so they were too tired to go to school the next day," said Giles-Hayes.
"Just the stresses I think of having to support the family was really a big barrier as well as some mental health concerns," he said.
United Way has also stepped in to pay hydro bills to stabilize student's living conditions at home.
For Amber and Ashley Buston-White, the sisters credit Giles-Hayes' consistent presence in their life as a key factor for their success in school.
"Liam is just a good influence on us, he just encourages us no matter what's going on in our life," said Amber Buston-White.
He has even shown up to their house in the wee hours for weekend events.
"He'd be like, 'wake up, get up'," said Ashley Buston-White. "It would be 9 a.m. on a weekend and I'd want to sleep," she said.
But Giles-Hayes said he often makes wake-up calls, and it isn't always on a weekend.
"It's something they really want to do, they want to go to school but sometimes you got to push a little bit to give them that encouragement that they need," he said.
"So I'd be driving out to Leamington to get there at 7:30 a.m. to get them up and ready for school at 8:30. If we could get it done through calls and texts and things like that, but sometimes when you get in a little rut whether your not feeling good about yourself and don't have the confidence or self-esteem to go to school, we're there to help take you."
"We just gave them every ounce of energy we could," said Kyle Berard, principal at Leamington District Secondary School which had 20 students in the program with Amber and Ashley Buston-White.
"Every kid who needs it should have access to it, I mean that's pie in the sky thinking and I know that, I understand that, but there's so many kids that would benefit from this model, and there are so many kids that could plug into the support network that United Way has created," said Berard.
Students in the program are awarded $1,000 for each successful year of high school.
