According to the Canadian Children’s Literacy Foundation, approximately 25% of Grade 3 children in Canada are not reading at grade level, and children in low socioeconomic communities are nearly 2x as likely to be behind in early development skills.
Due to these numbers, the Indigo Love of Reading Foundation is committing $40,000 to Yellowknife’s Weledeh Catholic School and $15,000 to Lutsel K’e Dene School.
Rose Lipton, the Executive Director of the Indigo Love of Reading Foundation, says the schools selected will benefit from new books, diverse titles and expanded reading collections for students.
“Many of the schools we’ve selected lack the resources to fill their school libraries, so these funds are going to grow their literacy programming exponentially,” Lipton says.
Teachers at Weledeh say the addition of new French books will give children the opportunity to engage with French language through titles that interest them.
“Presently, I have a small classroom library of French books and our school library does not have a large section to choose from,” Leslie Caines, a kindergarten teacher at Weledeh says. “The children will be able to find books that they are interested in and have the opportunity to find new interests as they explore all of the resources that would be purchased for them,” she adds.
This year’s Indigo Love of Reading grant is part of over $1 million donated to 30 schools across Canada.
