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 29,500 full-time, part-time, apprenticeship and international students at three main campuses in Hamilton, Ontario and learning hubs across Hamilton through City School by Mohawk, and at the College’s Centre for Aviation Technology at the Hamilton International Airport. Mohawk is among the top five colleges for applied research in Canada. It has been named one of Canada’s greenest employers seven years in a row, holds a GOLD STARS rating from AASHE for sustainability achievements and is home to the country’s largest and first institutional building to receive dual certification for Zero Carbon Building Framework design and performance for The Joyce Centre for Partnership & Innovation. More than 135,000 people have graduated from Mohawk since it was founded.