Cory Illingworth: Success Story

The room in Gloucester High School is full of new Canadians. It’s an English as a second language class populated by immigrants and refugees. Many come from countries where they have experienced hardships that most of us couldn’t imagine. Thankfully, their Educational Assistant (EA), Corey Illingworth, is not like most of us.

Corey has lived through hardships few of us will ever experience. Homeless from the age of 17, Corey lived on the streets of Ottawa for years. Struggling to find food to eat, a place to sleep night after night, and a way to get off the street and into a more stable lifestyle.

At Operation Come Home, Corey found that leg up. At first, he started coming to the drop-in for the hot breakfast that was provided. After a while, he started taking advantage of the Food Bank items that were there for the taking, and the clothing cupboard where he could get new, clean clothes. From there he joined the BottleWorks social enterprise and got some job experience and spending cash, and he joined the employment program to learn to write a cover letter and resume. Within a few years, he began working, found housing, and became a college student at Algonquin. Operation Come Home didn’t put pressure on Corey to do these things. Instead, as they do with every youth they serve, they met him exactly where he was.

Now at Gloucester High School since February, Corey is meeting youth where they are. Today, he’s working with a young Nigerian girl who has mobility issues. When she first arrived at Gloucester, Corey would push her around in a wheelchair. Now, she’s able to walk on her own, but occasionally needs help carrying her bag from one floor to another.

The teacher, Mr. McCormick, is taking the class to the library to see a presentation about the history of LGBTQ+ rights in Canada. Before they head off to the library though, Mr. McCormick pauses to give them a preview of tomorrow’s lesson. Tomorrow, they will hear directly from Corey. He’s going to tell them about homelessness in Canada. This class of new Canadians is getting fully immersed in Canadian history and culture – the good, and the bad.

Mr. McCormick is effusive in his praise of Corey (or, as the kids call him, Mr. I). While some EAs come into class to put in the time, get their hours, and go home, Mr. I is different. He’s always working. He’s helping to set up, helping to tear down, making sure everything is in the right place and ready for the next class. And more than that, he takes the time to connect with these kids.

It’s easy to see the rapport between Mr. I and his students when he sits down at their table. These may be new Canadians but they are also high school students – replete with the cynicism, rebellion, and jaded apathy that define so many of their peers. And yet, when Corey sits down at their table, it’s like he’s just one of the youth. There is eye contact, easy conversation, and broad smiles and quick laughter spread around the group.

Tomorrow, that connection with these youth will likely deepen when Corey shares his story. The hardscrabble day-to-day life of a street youth is something with which these kids can identify. Not only are they the same age Corey was when he found himself homeless, but many of them come from places in the world where poverty was a fact of life and stability was uncertain from one day to the next.

For now, they know nothing of Corey’s history. They don’t know the kid who walked into Operation Come Home in 2011 with little hope of getting off Ottawa’s streets. They weren’t there for the seven years of baby steps that took Corey from the drop-in breakfast at OCH to a diploma in Child and Youth Work last year. All they know is Mr. I. Their dependable, accessible, and empathetic EA.

That hard-working EA is who Corey has always been. Yes, he’s a college graduate with a full-time job with the Ottawa Carleton District School Board, hoping eventually to earn a permanent position with benefits. But he’s also the same hard-working and tough-minded individual he was ten years ago.

In Corey’s words: “Ben Franklin said that ‘if you do tomorrow what you did today, you will get tomorrow what you got today’. When I was on the streets, I had a more simplified view of it as ‘do or die’. I knew, from the moment I was homeless, that I had to sort my things out or I was going to die as a ‘street kid’ and I fought hard to get to where I am today. I do not envy the struggle that street youth of today have to deal with and I keep them in my mind, hoping that they can do better for themselves and get out of their situations.”

Corey and his fiancée Jamie are tentatively planning their wedding, in a slow and meticulous manner. This isn’t Corey’s way so much as it is Jamie’s. For Corey, all he cares about is the exchange of rings and the words “I do”. For him, it doesn’t matter how they get there – all that matters is that they do. And he knows they will. This seems to have been the way with most everything in Corey’s life. It may be a long and winding road, full of setbacks and obstacles. But he has always reached his destination. Who knows where that will take him down the road. Today, that means he is Mr. I to a group of high school students. Kids who have no idea how tough, determined, and strong their new EA has had to be.