Our Impact
Kids Strong and Free has teamed up with children’s literacy advocate and best-selling author, Teresa Schapansky, to develop two donation programs:
- Educators that order Along The Way books directly through the author will receive an immediate 25% discount
- 30% of every other Along The Way book sold will be donated quarterly to Kids Strong and Free to assist in furthering our early literacy campaign.
In collaboration with many strategic partners, our vision is to continue funding the research and through innovative campaigns, drawing awareness to the critical need to increase children’s literacy in Canada.
Our Community
Everything about Kids Strong and Free is about the child and the impact literacy will make on their life.
Who is Kids Strong and Free (KSAF)?
Our Vision is simple: To build a healthier future for Canada’s children. Kids Strong and Free is a Not-for-Profit foundation dedicated to the physical and mental wellness of children.
What does Kids Strong and Free do?
Kids Strong and Free designs, develops, introduces, activates and administers programs in collaboration with national and provincially recognized organizations, affiliations, and institutions that help Canadian children grow in a healthy and safe learning environment.
The resources, materials, programs, opportunities, and enhancements are delivered to help expedite care, cure and positive growth in Canadian children in a timely, cost-effective manner.
Regardless of race, creed, colour or origin and regardless of rural or urban setting, our commitment is to ensure that every Canadian child receives the very best support to learn and to grow.
WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT THE LITERACY SKILLS OF CANADIANS
Excerpt from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2528650/ – November, 2006
“Approximately 10 years ago, Canada and other Organisations for Economic Co-operation and Development countries began to cooperate in a program to measure literacy skills in their populations, and to share their results to allow for international comparisons. These initiatives were designed to provide a benchmark against which to gauge our performance, and they have revealed just how many Canadians are unprepared for the literacy demands of modern society.
To illustrate, a person at Level 1 would typically be unable to determine the amount of medicine to administer to a child based on simple instructions printed on a bottle. Those at Level 2 can read simple materials only. Because they frequently develop coping skills that mask their difficulty and allow them to deal with everyday literacy demands, these individuals (and others) may overestimate their proficiency, although they have difficulty in novel situations, such as learning new job skills.
Astonishingly, the estimates – over a range of tests and testing programs – are that approximately 42% of Canadians between the ages of 16 and 65 years fail to achieve Level 3 proficiency. Unless the situation can be remedied, the consequences for these persons and for other Canadians are daunting. Unfortunately, from the first findings in 1994 to the most recent in 2003, Canada’s results have shown little improvement (1).
Of course, the foundations for good language and literacy skills are laid early in life, and skill accumulates over time. We know that too many Canadian children are receiving a poor start. For example, the Ontario Ministry of Child and Youth Services has found that at four and five years of age, approximately one-fifth of all children show delays in vocabulary development (2). By grade 3, more than one in every three Ontario students fail to meet the provincial standards for reading and writing (3). Other provinces with formal measurement programs report similar results; in Manitoba, for example, almost two of every five grade 3 students fail to meet expectations in reading comprehension (4). Moreover, even those who achieve adequate literacy skills during their school years show a decline in proficiency later in life if they do not continue to be engaged in literacy-promoting work or other activities (5).
Our Impact
Kids Strong and Free has teamed up with children’s literacy advocate and best-selling author, Teresa Schapansky, to develop two donation programs:
- Educators that order Along The Way books directly through the author will receive an immediate 25% discount
- 30% of every other Along The Way book sold will be donated quarterly to Kids Strong and Free to assist in further our early literacy campaign.
In collaboration with many strategic partners, our vision is to continue funding the research and through innovative campaigns, drawing awareness to the critical need to increase children’s literacy in Canada.
Our Community
Everything about Kids Strong and Free is about the child and the impact literacy will make on their life.
Our leading reputation is built on strong national partnerships, research communities and service providers that all meet on the common grounds of facilitating increased mental and physical health for children through an increased focus on literacy.
