Notes for Remarks by Roberta Jamieson
President and CEO, National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation

The Potential of a AUCC/NAAF Partnership in Realizing Potential of First Nations, Inuit and Metis Youth

Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada President’s Workshop on Aboriginal Education January 28-29, 2010, Toronto, Ontario

Segon! Skenna! Bon soir, and Good Evening!

As we always do, we remember where we are:
this is traditional territory of the Indigenous peoples who over thousands of years have called this place home, who have given us the names “Toronto” [DoLoonDo] and “Ontario” [Uuntaleeo].

Our task – our joint task, if I may – is to work for the future, for the future of our children, for the future of Canada.

We have been called together by Paul Davidson to address the question of realizing the potential of First Nations, Inuit and Métis youth.

I know of his commitment, and, distinguished Presidents, I know of your commitment.

Recently Dr. Davidson told a Senate Committee, “One of the most compelling national issues we all must face, not just the higher education community, is the crisis in Aboriginal education.

“I was so pleased”, he said, “when I arrived at AUCC, to see that university presidents identified this as one of our significant priorities going forward.

My message tonight is that commitment is not enough.

Solving the problem we face will not “just happen”.

We cannot afford to give ourselves the luxury of complacency.

Last year, an important report was released by the Centre for the Study of Living Standards.

It provided hard-nosed economic facts that cannot be dodged:
unless we do something about education of indigenous youth, hundreds of thousands of youth will not be available to help Canada deal with a shrinking labour force.

Neither will these youth become adults who contribute to Canada’s economy.

Instead, our neglect of them will add to a ballooning social deficit – the cost of maintaining entire communities in a state of perpetual poverty, generation after generation.

Our neglect today means a heavy price is being paid and will continue to be paid in the future.

The cost is human tragedy with significant economic consequences.

The Centre’s report demonstrated a savings of $115-billion on just the expense side of the ledger over the next 15 years if indigenous youth are prepared over the same period to contribute their potential in Canada’s work force.

The impulse to the economy would also be startingly huge:
in the same period -- there would be an estimated $401-billion cumulative effect on Canada’s GDP if the educational and employment gap can be closed.

The problem is extremely complex, and the solutions, while often obvious, are not always easy to implement.

Some solutions lie in the hands of First Nation parents and communities and leadership.

Other solutions lie with governments.

And still other solutions lie with universities and colleges.

I suggest that we all must focus on what you can do, and do it.

When we can demonstrate we are doing what we can do, we can then encourage others to do what they can do, and use our own example of meaningful action as an inspiration.

Your Association, under Dr. Davidson’s leadership, has set out the objective, and I quote it to you from your website:

A holistic approach is needed to ensure successful transitions for students and to help more Aboriginal students complete their postsecondary education.

This approach must include:

- increased federal funding for Aboriginal students,

- federal funding for Aboriginal-focused support programs at universities and

- the creation of a series of pilot projects where Aboriginal communities and universities work together to improve high school graduation rates. (1)

I want to use this opportunity to give you another objective:

The approach of the AUCC should also include working in partnership with the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation to achieve its goals with respect to First Nations, Inuit and Métis students.

Why the Foundation?

Principally because we have a great deal of experience to offer to you, and because by working together, we can increase the chances of success for the students and for our respective organizations.

The Foundation is a nationally-registered charity.

It has a bold mandate to encourage, empower, and provide assistance to First Nations, Métis, and Inuit individuals, groups and communities so they can convert their tremendous potential, their aspirations, into solid achievement and brighter futures.

The Foundation provides more scholarship funding to First Nations, Métis, and Inuit youth than any other agency in Canada outside the federal government – to date 35 million dollars to more than 9800 recipients — and over half that amount in the last five years.

This year alone we will provide over $5-million to approximately fourteen hundred recipients.

We are fully accountable to donors, to partners, to the public, and to the Aboriginal Peoples we serve.

The Foundation has in place policies and procedures to ensure there is sound stewardship of the funds with which it is entrusted.

The Foundation has in place allocation methodologies to ensure there is equitable access across Canada to all potential recipients of bursaries.

The Foundation has in place performance measurement procedures to ensure that the objectives of its bursary funding program are met – the Foundation is willing to be measured on the results of its work.

The Foundation has in place policies and procedures to ensure there is compliance with funding agreements with recipients; policies and procedures to ensure there is equitable access to its bursaries for all First Nations, Inuit, and Métis persons.

The Foundation engages in its own internal reviews and audits to ensure compliance with its policies and procedures.

That’s what we do.

I believe we can work together in educating decision-makers and the public at large about why this is so critical for our future, for Canada’s future.

We have to get across the simple fact that the aboriginal population is increasing at a rate three times the Canadian average.

The Report of the Centre for the Study of Living Standards which I mentioned a few moments ago sets out the rationale for the Call to Action:

“Investing in Aboriginal education will not only benefit the Aboriginal population itself, but will also benefit Canadian government and by extension, the entire Canadian population. . .

“The key to increasing educational attainment is to increase the numbers graduating from high school as this not only increases the potential economic contribution, but it creates a larger pool of potential university graduates.”

Further, as declining enrolment of non-aboriginal students reduces the pool of students seeking university, the efforts of post-secondary institutions to recruit and retain aboriginal students is increasingly important.

We have to get across to decision-makers and the public that we will not have more high school graduates unless we ensure that our students are receiving an education of the same quality that Canadian students generally are receiving.

That is going to mean that Canada has to invest as much in aboriginal students as it is investing in non-aboriginal students, and that is not happening at this time.

Let’s work together to correct this entrenched inequity.

Let’s also get across to decision-makers and the public that high school graduation alone is not going to increase the number of our students who go on to university and college.

They have to have the resources to go on to post-secondary education, and there are not sufficient resources available now.

I can tell you as CEO and President of the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation that already we have a large pool of potential university graduates who will never go to university because they do not have access to the resources to get them there.

Despite the millions the Foundation distributes, we know we are not meeting even 25% of the assistance requested from those who apply to us for assistance.

I speak of financial resources, and of support resources.

I quote from a report done by the Royal Bank some 13 years ago:

The opportunities available to do something are in stark contrast to the high cost of maintaining the status quo, the truly daunting cost of doing nothing.

That was 12 years ago, and if you add up the bill for the last twelve years, you will find it to be absolutely staggering the amount of potential which has been squandered.

You will find that the gaps which existed then between aboriginal and non-aboriginal statistics are increasing, rather than shrinking.

I am ideally positioned as CEO and President of the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation to see both pictures.

I see what First Nations, Inuit and Métis students are doing to realize their potential, to change their lives.

I also see the tragedy and the loss which happens when the money runs out, when we have no money left for bursaries.

As indigenous peoples, we know that today, our primary assets are our people, our youth.

We believe their education – both in terms of traditional values and in terms of today’s science and approaches -- holds the key not only to our economy and prosperity in the decades ahead, but to Canada’s as well.

Education not only gives our next generation the skills they need for jobs, for entrepreneurship, but it also leads to personal empowerment.

You are no doubt familiar with Alex Usher’s report for the Educational Policy Institute which was commissioned by the Department of Indian Affairs.

It proposes optional mechanisms for handling the $314-million DIAND distributes to First Nations and First Nation organizations for post-secondary education.

I believe the report will provide the basis for much of the policy debate which we can expect over the next year or more.

Frankly, the Foundation does not intend to enter that debate, except to say that if we put the student first, the more sources each student has to get funding the better the chance of the student finding the right fit.

The statistics in the Usher report are startling:

• 32% of aboriginal people 25-34 years of age have not completed high school, as compared to 10% in the general population.

• only 3% of First Nations people have a university degree, as compared to 6% of the “aboriginal population” and 18% of the general population, and about two-thirds of the “aboriginal population” are First Nations people.

Alex Usher’s report asks and the question:
“Why aren’t First Nations, Inuit and Métis youth graduating from high school and going on to post-secondary education?”

His research findings were that in addition to access to resources, the other key factors are family and personal issues.

Attending university or community college is likely to involve relocation to urban centres away from home communities and complex family obligations and responsibilities.

Aboriginal students represent an older population with greater need for child-care services.

There are issues of lack of confidence, lack of motivation, often accompanied by lower high school grades, lower levels of family achievement, and a lack of self-confidence and motivation.

The institution the students attend may have a lack of understanding of aboriginal culture, and students may face racism.

Among those who do complete high school, the report says, there are many barriers:
lack of academically-based role models, inability to advance due to weak academic foundations from high school, meaning they are academically disadvantaged.

All that on top of having greater financial needs.

The Usher Report suggests that among the initiatives that might be taken are the following:

• there must be more grants, scholarships, and bursaries specifically for Aboriginal people;

• we need more Aboriginal educational institutions, whether affiliated with larger institutions such as your own, or independently operated;

• we need more college and university programs that actively promote and support Aboriginal post-secondary education:

That means -
- Active recruitment of Aboriginal people;
- Transition courses
- Widening of entrance criteria to include non-academic factors, and
- Ongoing support throughout programs of study.

The Usher Report also called for

• Community delivery to allow post-secondary education to be offered within or closer to Aboriginal communities;

• Creation of programs geared specifically to Aboriginal people, such as Aboriginal law, health, and education programs;

• Support services that focus on the particular needs of Aboriginal people at the post-secondary level,
such as the involvement of Elders;

• Development and usage of Aboriginal curriculum
and culturally-sensitive materials and pedagogies;

• Alternative assessment for Aboriginal students;

• Strengthening of Aboriginal literacy and language skills, both in traditional Aboriginal languages and in English and French.

The Usher study notes correctly that the DIAND Post-Secondary program is simply a financial aid program and does not touch any of the other barriers which exist.

The need to address these issues is why I am suggesting that the Foundation and the Association of Canadian Universities and Colleges form an active partnership and that together, we seek the funding to make it work.

The question I hope you will be focusing on over the course of this workshop is simple:
what can we do, working together, in a very real and meaningful way, to make significant progress in correcting the monumental problem that we face?

Each of us likely has already been thinking, “When I get back home, I’m going to do . . .” and you have your checklist already made.

But what is it that we can do together?

What can we do to create synergy so we can close the gap quicker and more effectively?

I have two proposals to make.

First, what about holding a working summit, a “Closing The Gap Working Summit”, and get the people with the ideas and power and resources into one room, roll up our sleeves, and develop a course of action?

Is this something the AUCC and the Foundation could make happen?

The Foundation is working on an initiative we call the “Realizing Project” designed to play a leadership role in the challenge of closing the gap.

We are looking for university research partners to work with us on this initiative which will involve the evaluation and showcasing of concrete approaches that have a proven positive an impact on high school graduation rates.

This initiative also involves the creation of the “ NAAF institute” which will provide a dynamic coaching environment to shape and share pilot projects operating across Canada.

What we need is partnership with one or more universities to provide us with research strength.

Any interested partners? See me later!

I am also suggesting a second project:

“The Coalition of Universities and Colleges of Canada for Aboriginal Achievement.”

The Foundation is uniquely positioned because of our network of thousands of students each year to determine through surveying, focus groups and tracking information about where our students go, why they made their respective choice, what really made a difference in their success, what was needed and wasn’t there.

We have the list of barriers to be overcome that I just listed from the Usher Report.

AUCC is well acquainted with the process of accreditation – maybe the time has come to consider some kind of standard-setting for an institution to be further accredited as being “aboriginal friendly and supportive”.

The Coalition would press Federal and provincial governments to provide funding for a pilot program which funds aboriginal students for studies in those accredited institutions.

The Foundation would assist each student to design a personal funding program that utilized part-time work, student loans, Canada Study Grants for Low-Income Students, etc., fully supplemented by a bursary from the Foundation.

Working with the institutions, we would assist each student to form a personal support network to help overcome tough situations that might arise.

Working with the Association, we would design a research study to demonstrate the cost-effectiveness of this approach.

If we could get the funds, I believe we could start with 500 students and cost-effectively produce 375 graduates a few years down the line.

That would be our joint goal.

And every time we can get the funding, we can put together another 500 fully-qualified applicants, and together, we will deliver graduates.

What a wonderful dream! Let’s make it happen!

In sum, if we could convince governments and corporations to put up the financial support, the Foundation could use its expertise in providing financial resources and the AUCC could use its good offices to set up Best Practices for colleges and universities to enhance their “aboriginal-friendly” practices, to promote a series of interventions involving financial, academic, peer and cultural support.

With the involvement of students themselves, we can show that working together, we can have a demonstrable effect on the performance of First Nations, Inuit and Métis students
in post-secondary education, and particularly in their sticking with their studies year after year until completion.

We can demonstrate that we have an approach that works.

I look forward to our discussions on this concept.

If Paul Davidson has your strong support and mandate to work with us, you can count on the support of the Foundation.

Thank you for your attention to my words.
Merci beaucoup. Niawehkowa.

(1) <http://www.aucc.ca/policy/priorities/aboriginal-education_e.html>