Surprise boost for youth program
Philanthropist matches federal funding for poor neighbourhoods
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that a summer job can be a launching pad to future success for many young people.
But York University physics professor emeritus Allan Carswell, whose research on laser terrain map- ping systems helped guide the 2007 Phoenix space mission to Mars, is determined to help more Toronto youth get that summer job.
The 83-year-old Thornhill philanthropist, who runs the Carswell Family Foundation, says he was spurred to action after reading a Star story about Ottawa’s plan to boost federal summer jobs by an additional $606,000 in Toronto communities that are grappling with gun violence.
The Star story “stimulated me to offer to have our family foundation ‘match’ the funds of (Employment) Minister MaryAnn Mihychuk in this program by providing an amount of $606,000 for additional positions for youth in this area,” Carswell said.
Neighbourhoods in the city’s northwest quadrant targeted for the extra Canada Summer Jobs Program funding include Lawrence Heights, Black Creek, Jane-Finch, Weston-Mount Dennis and Rexdale.
It is part of an $18.7-million investment across the city to create 6,305 summer jobs this year.
That is more than double the positions funded by the previous Conservative government.
More than 77,000 jobs are being created nationwide.
Students aged 15 to 30 who are returning to school in the fall are eligible.
Toronto MPs lobbied Ottawa to find extra money for troubled neighbourhoods in five Toronto ridings after a recent spike in gun deaths, including the fatal shooting in May of a pregnant woman while she sat in a car in Rexdale.
“Summer jobs had a huge impact on my early life, not only from their financial support but mainly from the experiential learning environment that they provided,” said Carswell, who grew up in a working-class family near Greenwood Ave. and Queen St. E. in the 1940s and ’50s.
“More recently, during the last few weeks I have vicariously been sharing a stressful, time-consuming, but eventually successful summer jobhunt with my 18-year-old granddaughter,” he said. “So I wanted to do something for young people in disadvantaged neighbourhoods.”
Federal officials were “blown away” when they heard about Carswell’s offer Monday and scrambled to contact all 58 agencies that received the additional federal jobs funding.
“This is one of the most rewarding projects I’ve had the pleasure to work on,” said John O’Leary, Mihychuk’s communications director.
“Our objective is to see as many Toronto youth and organizations benefit from Mr. Carswell’s incredible generosity as possible.”
For the Boys and Girls Clubs of Lawrence Heights and Weston-Mount Dennis, it will mean even more youth will be hired to work in the non-profit organization’s summer day camps, said director Shawn Burgess.
“It’s like Christmas in June,” he said. “There are always more youth looking for opportunities to make some money, learn new skills and stay off the streets. So this is amazing.” And it will mean more children aged 6 to 12 will get a chance to go to summer camp for $5 a day. “This is really going to make a difference for our families,” Burgess added.
Carswell, a physics professor at York for 30 years, a world leader in laser-imaging technology, now works full-time on his family foundation.
“I’m 83, but I feel 40,” said the Order of Canada recipient. “I’m particularly interested in matching grants because I think they encourage others to step up.”