Low-income Populations Archives - SRDC

Understanding the Experiences of Equity-Deserving Students and Prospective Students who Face Barriers Accessing Student Financial Assistance

Wallaa Daramlly — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 18:53:19 +0000

This project examines the experiences of equity-deserving individuals who face barriers to accessing student financial assistance (SFA) in Canada. Despite the availability of federal and provincial supports, some current and prospective postsecondary students do not apply for or receive financial aid, even when they may be eligible. This study seeks to understand why.

Using a mixed-methods research design, the project gathers evidence from two groups: current postsecondary students who are not using student financial assistance and youth aged 18 to 30 who are not currently enrolled in postsecondary education. Surveys provide national-level insight into awareness, perceptions, and barriers, while in-depth interviews explore how financial, administrative, informational, and personal factors shape decision-making.

By centring the lived experiences of equity-deserving populations, the project aims to generate actionable evidence to inform policy improvements to make SFA more accessible, inclusive, and responsive to the needs of diverse learners across Canada.

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Scaling & Replicator Strategic Evaluation and Learning Support for FSC

Wallaa Daramlly — Wed, 03 Dec 2025 15:12:24 +0000

SRDC is undertaking several evaluations within new categories of Future Skills Centre (FSC) projects. The SCALE initiative invited existing FSC partners whose projects were ready for the next scale-up phase to apply for additional funding to advance their projects along a clearly defined scaling pathway. The projects were selected to answer pressing strategic questions that represent gaps in knowledge and/or practice – and around which FSC investment strategies are oriented. The projects embrace ongoing testing of program feasibility and effectiveness derived from specified scaling objectives. The REPLICATE initiative funds FSC partners whose projects present the best evidence of effectiveness and impact to conduct replication projects with up to two or three different partners working in different geographical locations. The projects test the feasibility of replication as further proof of the effectiveness of the program and help to further build up a cohort of partnerships ready to move towards full scaling and sustainability, as well as test replication as a strategy for project sustainability.

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Developing and Testing Housing Solutions for People Involved in the Justice System

Wallaa Daramlly — Fri, 24 Oct 2025 18:06:14 +0000

This project, led by the John Howard Society of Ontario’s Centre of Research and Policy, is focused on collaboratively developing, implementing, and evaluating housing solutions for individuals with high or complex needs who are facing homelessness upon reintegration into community after release from incarceration. SRDC is supporting JHSO to bring together community partners to co-create and design unique housing solutions that can be readily integrated alongside existing release planning supports. Partners are then piloting the new housing solutions in Ontario communities. SRDC and JHSO are carrying out a robust evaluation, and then sharing findings and lessons learned with other communities across Canada to inform their efforts to tackle pressing housing challenges among justice-involved individuals.

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Low-Income Student Experiences After Post-Secondary Education

Wallaa Daramlly — Thu, 18 Jan 2024 22:12:52 +0000

This project seeks a better understanding of the post-study experiences of former post-secondary education (PSE) students who received student aid. Topics to be explored include: their earlier experiences navigating PSE and the labour market and the role played by student aid in their education and post-graduation journeys. Given the purpose of student aid is to support students who might not otherwise be able to further their education to do so and reap the social and economic benefits of learning and/or earning a PSE credential, it is important for student aid decision-makers to understand whether and how these outcomes are achieved. The project objective is to generate qualitative evidence that can be utilized alongside existing quantitative evidence on student outcomes such as study completion, post-PSE incomes and employment to better contextualize achievement of career and life goals. The work should provide a new perspective on the role former students themselves see student aid having played in supporting key outcomes they view as important, including their reflections on program features such as applying for and receiving grants and loans, their adequacy, and the process of loan repayment.

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Archetypes of Household Food Insecurity & Effective Interventions – Review of the Literature

Wallaa Daramlly — Mon, 17 Apr 2023 12:13:07 +0000

SRDC is undertaking a comprehensive review of the literature to synthesize existing knowledge about the effectiveness of interventions, at program and policy/systems levels, in reducing household food insecurity in Canada and similar contexts, with a focus on what works, for whom, and under what conditions. Based on the available body of evidence on existing interventions, we are developing ‘archetypes’ of key groups of people who experience household food insecurity, with a view to understanding which interventions work best for which groups, based on unique needs/barriers, while also identifying current gaps in knowledge about appropriate interventions for some groups. By exploring the contexts and typologies of interventions that show the greatest promise in benefiting various archetypes of food insecure households, we strive to inform internal strategy for policy, program, and investment action by the Maple Leaf Centre for Food Security, in support of the Centre’s bold goal to reduce household food insecurity in Canada by 50 per cent by 2030.

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Improving Understanding of the Canada Learning Bond

Wallaa Daramlly — Tue, 04 Apr 2023 15:28:04 +0000

The Canada Learning Bond (CLB) is a potential contribution of up to $2,000 per child from the federal government to the Registered Education Savings Plans of children from low-income families. It can be used to offset the costs of the child’s later study in apprenticeship programs, CEGEPs, trade schools, colleges, and universities. This project sets out to better understand the CLB by answering three research questions concerned with variation in access by birth cohort, household income, and geographical factors, as well as the degree to which CLB is associated with overall and education-specific savings behaviour among parents.

The three questions are:

What is the allocation of CLB funds to families by birth cohort and household income?
What can current data tell us about the catalytic impact of the CLB on education savings, broken down by birth cohort and household income?
What are the specific barriers to accessing the CLB among rural Canadians?

SRDC is analyzing data from Statistics Canada including the Survey of Approaches to Educational Planning, Canada Education Savings Program files linked to the 2016 Census and a potential second linkage focused on the Longitudinal Administrative Database.

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Skills for Success in Employment and Skills Training: A Feminist Perspective – Evidence Brief

Wallaa Daramlly — Thu, 02 Mar 2023 20:14:43 +0000

This evidence brief was drafted to inform the design and development of skills training curriculum and approaches as part of the WOMEN FIRST project, funded through Employment and Skill Development Canada’s (ESDC) Women’s Employment Readiness pilot program. It may also be more broadly useful for organizations, training developers, and practitioners working in the employment and skills training sector seeking to employ an equity-driven approach to their design and delivery of Skills for Success materials. Following an overview of intersectionality as it relates to employment and skills training, we provide an overview of key skill differences between different demographic groups. This is followed by a discussion about the role of training to address systemic inequities, as well as practitioner considerations, suggestions, and examples for training development and delivery.

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Wraparound Supports in Employment and Skills Training: A Feminist Perspective

Wallaa Daramlly — Thu, 02 Mar 2023 20:04:03 +0000

This evidence brief was drafted to support program innovations or adaptations as part of the WOMEN FIRST project, funded through Employment and Skill Development Canada’s (ESDC) Women’s Employment Readiness pilot program. It may also be more broadly useful for organizations, training developers, and practitioners working in the employment and skills training sector seeking to employ an equity-driven approach to their delivery of wraparound supports. Beginning with an overview of wraparound supports and practical exemplars, the brief follows by outlining a series of considerations and approaches that may support the design and implementation of wraparound supports in employment and skills training. Throughout the document, an intersectional lens is adopted to examine key issues to consider when planning and delivering supports to populations facing multiple and complex barriers.

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Empowering Youth for Post-Secondary Education Preparedness

Wallaa Daramlly — Tue, 26 Apr 2022 23:11:23 +0000

This is a project intended to research and consolidate information about best practices to empower youth from lower-income families to be active participants in their own preparation for postsecondary education. SRDC is undertaking an international literature review of best practices for youth empowerment approaches and a Pan-Canadian environmental scan of existing community programs, services and supports. As one product, SRDC is generating an inventory of current interventions for PSE preparedness for youth from low-income families, including interventions that address non-financial barriers to PSE.

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learn$ave: Individual Development Accounts Project

Wallaa Daramlly — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 14:43:11 +0000

A national demonstration project of individual development accounts for adult learning

Can low-income adults be encouraged to save money in order to attend education or training or start a new business? This question was at the heart of learn$ave, a demonstration project that tested Individual Development Accounts. IDAs are matched-savings plans that encourage low-income individuals to accumulate productive assets for purposes of improving themselves.

In learn$ave, the project contributed $3 in matched credits for every $1 deposited in a learn$ave account. Participants had up to three years to save a maximum of $1,500. With the matching contribution, therefore, the total amount available to the participant could be as high as $6,000. Like other IDA programs, learn$ave also provided assistance to participants in the form of financial management training and a case management component. Earned credits had to be used up by month 48.

The allowable uses for the matched funds were limited to training, education, and small business start-up.

Methodology

A total of 4,827 participants enrolled in learn$ave, which operated in 10 sites across Canada. The Social Research and Demonstration Corporation (SRDC) and Social and Enterprise Development Innovations (SEDI) jointly conducted the project. SEDI was responsible for the implementation and delivery of the project in partnership with a network of non-profit agencies. Local financial institutions worked with the community agencies to provide deposit account services to learn$ave participants.

Throughout the project, launched in 2001, SRDC oversaw the research and evaluation process to determine how well learn$ave was implemented and worked, and what impacts it had. SRDC evaluated the project by conducting randomized trials in Vancouver, Toronto, and Halifax. Participants were randomly assigned to program and control groups, and the two groups were compared on a series of outcomes. Specifically, researchers looked at whether participants in learn$ave

increased budgeting and financial goal setting, increased the amount saved and overall new worth within the saving period, increased their participation in adult learning and small business start-up, and improved their employment and earnings prospects.

Other research included a case study on service delivery in the three cities mentioned above and at seven other sites across Canada – Calgary, Winnipeg, Grey-Bruce counties (Ontario), Kitchener-Waterloo, Montréal, Fredericton, and Annapolis-Digby (Nova Scotia). A cost-effectiveness analysis was also conducted to determine if a program like learn$ave is economically viable for implementation on a larger scale.

Status

The project ended with the release of the final research report in November 2010. The report confirmed that matched savings can encourage low-income adults to save for and enrol in post-secondary education and training. However, the report showed that this can be a costly way of promoting adult learning and provided suggestions for ways to reduce costs. It also found that windfall gains realized by participants who would have enrolled in adult learning without learn$ave reduced the program’s cost-effectiveness, though this is a problem that exists but is unmeasured in alternative financial assistance models.

In August 2005, SRDC published Design and Implementation of a Program to Help the Poor Save, the second report on the learn$ave project, which documented in detail the implementation of learn$ave and presented lessons learned. In its January 2008 report, Learning to Save, Saving to Learn: Early Impacts of the learn$ave Individual Development Accounts Project, SRDC clearly showed that low-income adults can save, mainly by re-arranging their asset portfolio. In the March 2009 report, Learning to Save, Saving to Learn: Intermediate Impacts of the learn$ave Individual Development Accounts Project, the results indicated that the matched saving credits encouraged adult learning among participants, mainly in post-secondary education programs.

Funding
learn$ave was funded by Human Resources and Skills Development Canada.

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