Shane has the unique privilege of working every day alongside the two people he says changed his life: his mother, Tracy, and the woman he calls his second mother, Elaine. The three have been connected since Pathways Winnipeg opened in 2010, when Shane was a Grade 9 student and Tracy was a mother worried about her son.
“I was a normal kid, but a little rebellious,” Shane recalls. “I wanted to fit in.”
His classmates were starting to use drugs and alcohol, but Tracy was determined to keep him on a steady path. When a flyer about Pathways arrived in the mail, she handed it to him and said, “You’re going.”
Shane wasn’t convinced he needed the program, but he agreed to give it a try. Between tutoring, regular check-ins with his support worker, Elaine, and having a quiet place to study, his grades improved. Before long, he was a regular.
Seeing the progress Shane was making, Tracy began volunteering at Pathways, eager to be part of a program that was helping kids in the city’s North End. She later joined the Pathways team full time.
In Grade 10, Shane was given the opportunity to transfer to the University of Winnipeg Collegiate, a small high school on the University of Winnipeg campus. It was a huge opportunity, but one Shane’s parents knew they couldn’t afford.
Then they learned he had been awarded a scholarship.
“It made my parents cry,” Shane recalls. “I never thought I would go to university, but being in that environment changed my perspective. I thought, ‘That’s going to be me one day.’”
Starting at the Collegiate was exciting, but it wasn’t easy. Shane was one of the few Indigenous students at the school, and at times he felt out of place. After classes, he returned to Pathways, where Elaine was always waiting, ready to listen and encourage him to keep going.
Every June, she and the Pathways team took students to National Indigenous Peoples Day celebrations at The Forks, where Elders, community leaders and artists came together to honour Indigenous cultures.
“I remember one speaker saying that you could achieve anything you set your mind to, no matter the colour of your skin. That really stayed with me,” Shane says. “Those events helped me connect with my culture and be more accepting of it than I used to be.”
Shane looks back on his high school years with pride, even though they didn’t turn out the way he’d expected. After a setback in his final year, Shane made the difficult decision to leave the Collegiate, but he never lost sight of his goal.
“I had my mind set on graduating,” he says.
At 18, he enrolled himself in a new school and completed his remaining credits. His graduation photo is still hanging at home as a reminder of what he’s capable of.
Shane became the first person in his family to attend university. He’s working toward his business degree while building a life for his young children. Following in the footsteps of the two women who believed in him from the start, Shane is now also part of the Pathways Winnipeg team. As a Student Parent Support Worker, he’s proud to offer young people the same encouragement he once received.
When his children come to visit him at work, they race into the centre, greeting all the staff by name.
“My daughter keeps asking, ‘Dad, when can I start the program?’ I tell her she has to be patient. She’s only in Grade 3.”