“This is a truly remarkable program! Their programs are part school, part emotional growth centers and part re-socialization centers… and part family and community building programs.”
-Dr. Charles Huffine (a former President of the American Association of Community Psychiatrists)
“If they didn’t feel comfortable there, if they didn’t feel that it was meeting their needs, then they wouldn’t show up. They would pay it lip service and that would be it. But, I find that the students are participating on a real level; something that is meaningful for them. I think that is why it is successful; it is meaningful for them. They are able to relate.”
– Herb Joe, T’xwelatse Elder
“We will not just give up. We will be there through the tough times with them. It’s easy to be there with them when things are going well, but we are not just going to give up on them when they are having a tough time. That is where change becomes more permanent, because you have changed their inner view of themselves; and that is the big important thing. Because if you don’t change their inner view, then it is just window dressing –it’s not real.”
– Dr. Phil Mann, Whytecliff Principal Emeritus
“There was a tremendous acceptance and compassion for each person’s individuality, each person’s gifts. Many of the young learners had certainly never heard of themselves spoken about in such a compassionate way before, or in a way that told them that they had gifts or that they had anything special. I came away from my set of interviews feeling how important it would be to have this particular model studied and articulated so it could be used as a model for other educational communities of practice.”
– Janice Grout, Educational Researcher
“I have worked with organizations with similar programs in 48 states and two provinces in Canada, and Focus Foundation’s programs are the best I’ve seen. They are in a class of their own. Focus Foundation has a unique approach where the staff develops caring relationships with each student in a positive learning environment and tailors a program for each student, depending on their personal learning preferences, interests and backgrounds. Focus Foundation is a centre of excellence within North America with an excellent opportunity to scale up the approach and programs.”
– Steve Schaffer, President, Schaffer Consulting, a firm specializing in behaviour health, human services and corrections
“The Focus Foundation programs reflect an exemplary model of working youth, who face multiple challenges in their lives and have a history of dropping out or being expelled from regular schools. Independent research conducted on similar programs across Canada shows Focus Foundation’s programs to be beacons of success for high need students, and unique in their innovative, engaging and holistic approaches to learning. In my work in the Faculty of Education at SFU, I regularly acknowledge this state-of the-art program that has successfully applied the best of what we know about educational theory to classroom practise.”
-Dr. Wanda Cassidy, Professor, Faculty of Education and Director, Centre for Education, Law and Society, Simon Fraser University