The EKO Scholarship Program empowers kids with disabilities and developmental needs differences with awards of $3,000 to pursue their education goals and career dreams.

Post-secondary education is an important element for achieving independence, yet people with disabilities and developmental needs are less likely to attend and complete post-secondary education than their peers.

Our goal is for the EKO Scholarship Program to help address the unemployment bias people with disabilities and developmental needs face, because nothing should stand in the way of promising young Ontarians pursuing their education and career goals.

There are eight (8) EKO scholarship awards available, one of which is an award specifically for Canadian First Nations, Métis, and Inuit youth. Seven awards are open to all applicants, plus an additional special award to an applicant who self-identifies as Canadian First Nations, Métis, and Inuit.

Applications for the 2026 EKO Scholarship are accepted beginning December 1, 2025. The application deadline is Thursday, April 30, 2026.

Visit our Apply Now page and follow the instructions. You will need to set up a basic account on our website, which will allow you to save your application progress as you complete it. If you have problems accessing this application, please contact us at info@empoweredkidsontario.ca. 

There are three requirements:

1. You must have received services from one of Empowered Kids Ontario’s General Member organizations. (EKO members are staffed by regulated health professionals who provide clinical care for kids with disabilities and developmental needs to live their best lives.)
2. You must be continuing your education in the 2026/27 academic year in a certificate-, diploma-, or degree-granting program (in-person, online, or hybrid) at an OSAP-approved educational institution, which includes many vocational-technical schools, colleges, universities and Indigenous Institutes.
   
   

   Please ensure your school is approved for the Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP) by confirming it is listed on the OSAP website.
   

   Important: Some continuing education, arts training programs and traditional knowledge educational opportunities may also be eligible. Confirm on the OSAP website.

3. You must be at least one of the following:
   
   • Canadian citizen
   • Canadian First Nations, Métis, and Inuit youth are eligible for any of the six awards, including the EKO Scholarship for Indigenous students
   • Permanent resident/landed immigrant
   • Convention refugee
   • A protected person living in Canada, as defined in the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act
   • A past applicant, but those who have already been named an EKO Scholar are not eligible

To submit your application, you will need to prepare three categories of information, including:

• General Information – your contact information
• Education Information – where you plan to continue your education this fall
• Tell Us About Yourself – an essay or creative work/artist’s statement
• Supplemental Materials – confirmation from an EKO General Member organization and two letters from people who are important to you

To tell us about yourself, you can choose to write an essay or produce creative work. If you choose to write an essay, it must be up to 750 words long. For creative work, you can choose to create a video, artwork, musical composition or creative writing piece. If you choose to do creative work, you will also need to submit a short artist statement. Learn more by visiting the Application Guide’s section “Tell Us About Yourself”.

We’ll be in touch with all of our applicants in late June/early July.

EKO Scholars will be announced in September.

All applications are carefully reviewed and considered by the Review Committee and the EKO Board of Directors.

Applicants will be notified shortly after the final decision is made.

We request that all scholars be reviewed and featured in a profile on our website. You can read profiles of previous years’ EKO Scholars here.

We will also celebrate your achievement on social media.

Have a question we didn’t answer? Please contact us at info@empoweredkidsontario.ca.