Ontario invests $1.25 million in Indigenous education at Mohawk
The Ontario Government announced a $1.25 million investment in Indigenous education at Mohawk College today. The money will be used to build the region's first Indigenous education plan, share best practices among Aboriginal Education Councils and help Mohawk deliver on its commitment to Indigenous students.
Mohawk is building the region's first Indigenous Education Plan with college partners including: Six Nations Polytechnic, the Metis Nation of Ontario, the Mississauga of the New Credit, Grand River Employment and Training, the Grand River Post Secondary Education Office, Sheridan College, McMaster University, the University of Guelph and Wilfred Laurier University.
"Our new Strategic Plan calls for Mohawk to further strengthen our leadership role in Indigenous education. The Government of Ontario's $1.25 million investment will help Mohawk and our partners build the region's first Indigenous education plan, share best practices among Aboriginal Education Councils and help us deliver on our commitments to Indigenous students and the communities we serve."
"The Targeted Initiative Fund supports innovative and thoughtful approaches to helping Aboriginal learners achieve successful outcomes and how appropriate that Mohawk College is receiving support for a project that will positively benefit students in our regional community for years to come."
For the development of the Indigenous education plan, the funding will support the integration of the college's Bundled Arrows initiative with local school boards. Led by Mohawk College, the Bundled Arrows Initiative is a regional collaboration between Aboriginal communities.
Working from a foundation of Indigenous Knowledge that many arrows bundled together are stronger than a single arrow, the Bundled Arrows Initiative is a partnership to build on promising practices and create many pathways from secondary to post-secondary education. The partnership recognizes the individual strengths of each arrow, but acknowledges that bundled, they have greater transformative power to increase post-secondary access and attainment for Aboriginal learners.
It is the first Indigenous education initiative of this scale.
Today's announcement is part of the Ontario Government's Targeted Initiatives Fund. The province is investing $3 million to the fund in 2015-16 to support 20 projects at postsecondary education and training institutions, community-based organizations and other service delivery partners. Ontario has committed to stable funding for Aboriginal postsecondary education with a promise to invest $97 million over three years.
Mohawk College educates and serves more than 32,500 full-time, part-time, apprenticeship and international students at four main campuses in Hamilton, Ontario and learning hubs across Hamilton through City School by Mohawk, as well as at the Mohawk College Mississauga Campus in partnership with triOS College. Mohawk is committed to upholding an equitable, diverse and inclusive learning, working and engaging environment for students, employees and the community. The college is among the top colleges for applied research in Canada. It has been named one of Hamilton-Niagara’s top employers and one of Canada’s greenest employers, and holds a GOLD STARS rating from AASHE for sustainability achievements. More than 165,000 people have graduated from Mohawk since it was founded.