President Ron McKerlie launches Challenge 2025

Mohawk College president Ron McKerlie this evening announced an ambitious new five-year initiative, called Challenge 2025, committing intensified college resources to address the ongoing issues of poverty, under-education and labour shortages in the Greater Hamilton Area.

“People are still being left behind as our city moves forward,” said McKerlie, in an announcement made at the 5^th Annual Mohawk College Partnership Dinner. “Through Challenge 2025, we intend to build on the success of our City School model and Mohawk’s extensive partnerships in the Hamilton area. We are convinced we can and must do more, and be more, for the people in our community.”

To guide Challenge 2025, a taskforce was formed with 15 key partners and community leaders, who share the belief that education and training can lead to generational change and community prosperity. The taskforce is co-chaired by McKerlie and community leader, Bill Young, president of Social Capital Partners, along with leaders from the corporate, community, education, healthcare and municipal sectors. By fall 2019, the group will develop recommendations on how Mohawk can do more, including aggressive targets. The college will release its action plan in late autumn.

“With Challenge 2025, we have a good map for success and, with the help of our taskforce, we will chart the right course. But we can’t get there alone,” McKerlie told the audience of nearly 400 guests at Hamilton’s LIUNA Station. “Working together, I am confident we will see real improvement in those neighbourhoods that need us most – thanks to a strong, vibrant citizenship working together for generational change. And a community college true to its mission.”

Since October 2015, City School by Mohawk has provided an intentional strategy to deliver accessible post-secondary education through community-based classrooms and mobile classrooms at the neighbourhood level. The goal of City School is to create a welcome, open space for learning, community engagement and partnership, collaboration and experiential learning.

Mohawk currently runs City School locations in North Hamilton at the Eva Rothwell Resource Centre, in Downtown Hamilton at the Central Public Library, and in pop-up locations throughout the region, including the Hamilton Regional Indian Centre and Mission Services of Hamilton.