Strong Start Charitable Organization

20 Crestview Place
Kitchener, ON N2B 0A2
Phone: 519-743-9678
Email: info@strongstart.ca
Website: www.strongstart.ca

What is Strong Start Charitable Organization's role in early literacy?

• Strong Start provides programs and services through community-wide partnerships to help children learn to read
• All Strong Start programs are provided free of charge to the program participants (children)
• Strong Start Charitable Organization is a registered charity B/N 82594 8060 RR0001

Who do we serve (our target population)?

• Letters, Sounds and Words program (LSW) is for children in Senior Kindergarten, Grades One and Two, at the first sign of lagging behind in early literacy skills
• Get Ready for School program (GRFS) for children ages 3 and 4 who may be economically disadvantaged or are learning English as a second language
  

Where can you find us?

• LSW:  Public and Catholic elementary schools throughout Waterloo Region
• GRFS: community centres including Kingsdale, Our Place Family Resource and Early Years Centre, The Family Centre and Country Hills in Kitchener, Kinbridge, Preston Heights and Langs in Cambridge, McCormick Library in Waterloo
• Public and Catholic elementary schools in: Brant, Haldimand Norfolk Counties and Catholic elementary Schools in Wellington County
  

How do we provide early literacy support for families/caregivers?  

• LSW: a 10-week literacy programs for children with trained community volunteers who deliver the program on a  one-on-one basis
  
• LSW: teaches the names and sounds of letters, how sounds blend to make words, and to recognize words by sight
• GRFS:  a 88-hour program delivered by trained personnel focusing on Phonological Awareness, Vocabulary Development and Classroom Readiness Behaviour
• GRFS: parents are given strategies they can use to support the learning process at home
  
• GRFS: take-home materials and activities are made available throughout the program, including a small kit of resources to practice with over the summer and a letter to the Kindergarten teacher describing the program
  

How do we provide early literacy support for service providers?

• LSW: provides new volunteers with 4-hours of training, with easy to use, prescriptive program manuals
• LSW: provides training, implementation tools and program materials to Site Coordinators at schools
• GRFS: provide training, prescribed instruction manuals and bins of learning activities for program instructors