Mariyah Pilon, 17, attends school at the June Callwood Centre for Women and Families on Parliament St. in Toronto, while three-month-old Liam is cared for in a nursery inside the same building. The centre has been awarded $50,000 from the Atkinson Foundation for helping young mothers.
COLIN MCCONNELL/TORONTO STAR
Chloé FedioStaff Reporter
Four days a week, 17-year-old Mariyah Pilon sits in a classroom like other teenagers across the GTA and studies English, science and math. But while her thoughts are on her studies, her heart is one floor up with her baby boy, Liam.
At the June Callwood Centre for Women and Families, young mothers like Pilon can study in the same building as their children, and simply walk up the stairs during lunch hour for some mom and baby time.
“I feel safe because he’s right above me,” Pilon says.
Founded in 1982 as Jessie’s Centre for Teenagers, the charitable organization has been awarded $50,000 from the Atkinson Foundation for helping young mothers be the best parents they can be.
A wide range of services – from housing support to health care services to child care support – are all offered under one roof in the Trefann Court building. The six-storey centre on Parliament St. also provides subsidized housing for 16 young families on its top four floors.
Pilon dropped out of her Grade 11 class at Parkdale Collegiate when she found out she was pregnant, but with a little encouragement she returned to her studies at the centre a few months later. Liam is just three months old, but Pilon is looking ahead to university, where she hopes to study midwifery.
“People say, ‘You’re not going to be able to finish school. You’re not going to be able to do the things you wanted to.’ That’s not true,” Pilon says. “I had plans and dreams but now I have a little one. It’s not going to change anything – it’s just going to take longer for me to do. It’s going to be harder, but it’s still possible.”
Pilon’s classroom looks pretty average – whiteboards, computers and posters with messages like, “Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference” – but there’s also a framed collage of baby pictures and a wall full of poems about what it’s like to be a teen mom.
About a dozen young mothers and pregnant teens study at the centre, with the benefit of in-house child care. Pilon says the nursery is more than a daycare – it’s a second home where she can draw support from others.
“We all help each other – it’s like a family of young mothers. They’re in the same situation and they understand,” Pilon says.
It’s that same sentiment that led the centre’s current executive director to pursue a career in social work and begin counselling pregnant teens 14 years ago.
Maritza Sanchez was 17 when her high school principal asked her to leave her Calgary school because she was pregnant. However, she refused to give up her education, and with support from an organization for teen moms she finished high school and completed a university degree by the time she was 23.
“I was really attracted to working here because of my own experience,” Sanchez says. “We are trying our best to keep the family together because we know if the parent can be helped to do a good job in parenting, it’s less costly for society and also it creates a healthy attachment and bonding between child and parent – and that’s really important.”
The young mothers also share their stories on the high school circuit – sex education that doesn’t come from a book.
“If I had the chance to have teen moms come to my school and talk about their lives after being pregnant, I don’t think I would be in this situation,” Pilon says.
The centre will receive the $50,000 Ruth Atkinson Hindmarsh Award at its annual general meeting Tuesday night.
