Why aren't Canadians terrified of these facts?

1. One in six Canadians has serious problems with reading and writing. Another
2. 22% of Canadians are unsure of their reading and writing skills (Statistics Canada). In Ontario schools, only 61 % of students are classified as literate.  The current government is aiming to have only 75 %  of our elementary students literate by 2008.  (Ben Levin, Deputy Minister of Education, 10/21/05).
3. 42 % of Canadians are semi-illiterate (Statistics Canada). For the past 15 years there has been scarcely any improvement in Canada's literacy rate (The National, 05/24/06).
4. More than 50% of people who receive social assistance are not able to read and write well.
5. 70% of 626 surveyed companies feel that they have a significant problem with functional literacy in some part of their organization (Statistics Canada).
6. During the first run of the Ontario High School Literacy tests, 39% of grade 10 students failed either the reading or writing component (NOW MAGAZINE, March 22, 2001).
7. In one small east-end Toronto school where students are mostly poor, only 8% of children passed the grade 10 literacy test. Children from 4 extremely affluent schools scored in the vicinity of 90% (NOW Magazine, March 22, 2001).
8. Many statistics go as far as to say that the prescription of Ritallin has increased 1000% over the past ten years. More often than not, "hyperactive" children need behaviour management. They do not need to be drugged.
9. “22 per cent of university graduates do not achieve adequate scores on prose literacy …between 11 and 14 per cent of Canadian born university graduates aged 26 to 55 have inadequate prose literacy.” (TD Bank. Literacy Matters: A Call for Action . 2007)
10. Our population is growing faster than our rate of literacy improvement. (HRSD 2005)
11. “Three provinces, British Columbia, Quebec and Ontario have, in total, 7 million of the 9 million people with low literacy.” (Canadian Council on Learning. State of Learning in Canada: No Time for Complacency. 2007)
12. “With health-literacy skills that are considered to be at level 2 and below (IALSS definition), 60% of adult Canadians lack the capacity to obtain, understand and act upon health information and services and to make appropriate health decisions on their own.” (Canadian Council on Learning Health Literacy in Canada. 2007)
13. 20-40 % of Canadian youth fail to acquire the level of skill believed to be essential to future economic and social success. (Canadian Council on Learning. State of Learning in Canada: No Time for Complacency. 2007)

The Solution: Hope and Excellence

• Within eight weeks, our new Canadian students who arrive in our classrooms not speaking a word of English are able to read and write at a first grade level.
• Most of our graduates (students who have been in our after-school program at the time of graduating from high school) have gone on to college or university.
• None of our enrolled students has dropped out of school.
• We have, in the past twelve years, taught over 5000 children to read.
• In 2003, Sage Youth carried out an extensive statistical analysis of the literacy achievements of its students. The general finding was that our ESL students not only gained confidence, but they improved their literacy skills by 3 to 4 times the rate of their peers who were not enrolled in our programs. Special education students improved at twice the rate of control groups.

Our Heroes

• Our literacy and mentoring programming is operated in the downtown Ottawa area: in a homeless shelter, a high school and a community centre.
• Approximately 400 children and their families participate in our programs each year.
• Over 100 volunteers act as tutors or offer their services.
• Our target audience is "high-need" children between the ages of five and eighteen. These are children from situations of financial disadvantage, new Canadian children (refugees and immigrants), and children with special needs.
• Our volunteers have ranged in age from 11 to 82 but the majority have been university students in the fields of education, psychology or social work. Sage Youth provides them with wonderful, practical experience in their fields. Many of the nearly 1300 volunteers with whom we have worked have gone on to be teachers, social workers and psychologists.

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