Maytree Conversations

In September 2010, the Omega Foundation launched SmartSAVER to inform low-income families about the Canada Learning Bond which provides children with up to $2,000 for post-secondary education. At the end of 2009, over 880,000 low-income children across Canada, or 81% of eligible children, had not received Bonds to which they were entitled.

But the good news is that enrolment in the Canada Learning Bond is increasing! In Toronto, almost 10,000 kids received their first Canada Learning Bond in 2010. In fact, in just about every neighbourhood in Toronto, more families are taking up the Canada Learning Bond than were before SmartSAVER was launched. And the trend continues across the country – the number of children receiving the Bond increased by over 80,000 in 2010.

Maytree is a SmartSAVER partner, and we’re happy to share their Summer 2011 email update.

By May Wong, Executive Director of the Omega Foundation

With summer in full swing we want to thank you for your support of SmartSAVER. Thanks to you, more families are finding out about the benefits of the Canada Learning Bond and are starting their kids on the road to higher education with Registered Education Savings Plans!

Since our launch in September 2010 interest in SmartSAVER has exceeded all of our hopes:

• Demand for information and training from Toronto agencies has been very strong! Almost 750 community workers in 420 community-based organizations and programs have received basic training in Registered Education Savings Plans and the Canada Learning Bond. Thousands of Canada Learning Bond-eligible families are being reached by SmartSAVER and through the ongoing programs of our partners the Working Women’s Community Centre, the YMCA of Greater Toronto and many other agency partners.
• We’ve received inquiries about SmartSAVER and visits to www.smartsaver.org from communities all over Canada as word of the Canada Learning Bond spreads from organization to organization, and parent to parent.
• www.smartsaver.org has received almost 1.1 million hits and the website is being recommended through social media from coast to coast!
• Partnering with Service Canada, we’ve been able to introduce new mobile technology that has greatly expanded mobile Social Insurance Number registration service in community settings, including many elementary schools in high-need areas of Toronto.
• With support from Service Canada and RESP providers like the Royal Bank of Canada and Scotiabank, partner organizations have begun piloting Canada Learning Bond sign-up events, with SIN and account sign-up in one place. At our first event in Scarborough in May, hosted by City Councillor Michael Thompson and Toronto Employment and Social Services, 100 families secured SIN numbers for their children and started RESP accounts for over 150 kids in 1 day! In the past few weeks, Rexdale Community Health Centre and Centennial College have both organized similar sign-up events for families and others are in the works.
• Media is helping to spread the word about the Canada Learning Bond, most recently, in this front page article in the Toronto Star on June 26: Canada Learning Bond helps low-income families. SmartSAVER has received coverage in the Somali, Jamaican, Chinese, Tamil, French and Afghan media too!

Though our pilot is still in early days, we’re encouraged that early data indicates that enrolment in the Canada Learning Bond is increasing. Across Canada, the number of children receiving the Bond increased by over 80,000 in 2010 and the national take-up rate has finally broken 20%!  In Toronto, almost 10,000 kids received their first Canada Learning Bond in 2010 and the rate of participation increased in 2010 in every neighbourhood in the city. Accelerating rates of enrolment in neighbourhoods like Regent Park, Agincourt and York where SmartSAVER’s partners have been particularly active, make us hopeful that focused effort is starting to have an impact. In fact, in just about every neighbourhood in Toronto, more families are taking up the Canada Learning Bond now than were before SmartSAVER was launched.

Community organizations are finding ways to introduce the Canada Learning Bond in their ongoing work with parents, from using it as a topic in language instruction to placing SmartSAVER’s bright yellow postcards in children’s cubbies at daycare!  Some organizations, like the June Callwood Centre for Women and Families are finding creative ways to deploy volunteers to help parents through the account sign-up process, while others, like Woodgreen Community Services find SmartSAVER’s extensive multi-lingual resources helpful to their ongoing financial literacy work.

The message we’re hearing is that, no matter what an organization’s primary focus is – from healthcare to housing, economic development to early education, the Canada Learning Bond is too good an opportunity to keep it a secret. Everyone can do something to make sure eligible families are able to secure the Bond for their children.

Be sure to visit www.smartsaver.org and pass the link and any of the material on the site to other organizations and to families who may be eligible for the Canada Learning Bond. New income guidelines, the 2011 Canada Learning Bond brochure and a new brochure, Choosing the right RESPfrom the Government of Canada are now posted.

We encourage any Toronto-based community agencies to contact us for training or other support for your Canada Learning Bond outreach. For those of you from outside of the Toronto area and for others using the SmartSAVER Network website for service providers, look for updates throughout the summer to better support your Canada Learning Bond education and outreach efforts. If you’d like to join the Network website, please send us an e-mail with your full contact information to info@smartsaver.org.

To all of our founding partners, the Bank of Nova Scotia, the George Cedric Metcalf Foundation, Human Resources and Skills Development Canada, the J.W. McConnell Family Foundation, Loblaws, the Maytree Foundation, OMNI Media, the Ontario Trillium Foundation, the Royal Bank of Canada, the Working Women’s Community Centre and the YMCA of Greater Toronto: THANK YOU! SmartSAVER would not be possible without you.

Have a great summer!

Related links:

• More than Money: Mining the human and financial potential of Canada’s education savings programs for low-income families
• Policy in Focus 14: Free money. For low-income kids. And the government can’t give it away.
• Successful money management, successful settlement, successful nation

Maytree & SmartSaver webinar – More Than Money