This article is part of a series of Dialog stories profiling Black students, staff and alumni within the George Brown College community in recognition of Black History Month.

When she was a student of George Brown’s Early Childhood Education program in 2002, Wendy LaRose made a rather unusual, bold choice in selecting her field placement. 

LaRose secured her field placement with Correctional Service Canada, where she worked with parole officers and made home visits to check in on parolees, who were mostly adult men. She started talking to the inmates during scheduled home visits accompanied by parole officers, where she sought to understand what their lives were like, what challenges they faced and how they ended up being incarcerated.

At this time, LaRose also started gathering information and resources that could facilitate the rehabilitation of the parolees.

“I had put together a 70-page document with resources that is used in facilities of Correctional Service Canada,” LaRose said.

LaRose went on to found Challenging the Outcome (CTO), an organization that focuses on providing assistance to marginalized children, youth and families. LaRose found the inspiration for starting the organization when she worked with inmates.

Her conversations with the parolees made LaRose realize that their troubled lives were mostly shaped by the challenges they faced in their childhood, and they did not have access to the resources and guidance at the time that could have put them on a better trajectory in life.

LaRose realized the importance of early intervention and help in the lives of marginalized children and youth, who find themselves in difficult situations. 

This realization set her on a career path that eventually resulted in the birth of CTO, which assists not only marginalized children and youth, but also parents through various educational services, counselling and training.

Before founding CTO, LaRose had returned to GBC as a student to complete a second degree in Social Service Worker Program in 2017.

Being a Black woman and mother of two school-going children, LaRose saw first-hand the different kinds of issues that marginalized children face in school directly.

“When my son was six years old, he started having a lot of problems in school as a Black boy,” she said. “At that time, I didn’t understand why he was facing all of those problems. But as I researched more, I realized that a lot of the issues stemmed from anti-Black racism.”

At the time, LaRose did not find any place that offered any help, effective guidance and long-term solution on dealing with the particular issues that her son faced, she said. 

Facing this overwhelmingly challenging experience as a mother, LaRose developed a deeper understanding of the issues children faced and how help could be offered not only to the children, but also their parents who needed to have expertise on how to help their children.

“One day my son told me, ‘Thank you for being there. If it were not for you, I wouldn’t feel like being here.’ This gave me goosebumps,” LaRose said.

“I thought if my son could feel like this, how could other children in similar situations feel like. This propelled me to start CTO.”

LaRose also talked about some of the biggest challenges that she faces in her work on a daily basis. The most difficult challenge, she said, is funding. 

As CTO works with marginalized families, it is usually difficult for parents from this income group to be able to afford any counselling, workshops or training when their children face different kinds of difficult issues at school. CTO provides services at a fraction of the cost and they often end up offering services free of cost to certain families that do not have the means to pay but really need the help.

“We also ask struggling families how much they can afford, offer them payment plans, or sometimes pay out of our own pockets,” LaRose said.

“Often parents come to us and express that they do not know how to help their children in any given situation, in such cases, we provide counselling for the whole family.”

She also mentioned that a lot of families do not have the means to pay for childcare. A lot of parents have to decide between putting food on the table and childcare or counselling.

You can learn more about LaRose and CTO, including how to donate or request its services, by visiting ChallengingTheOutcome.com.