Julia Zhu, our program facilitator, met Shirley at a local park while participating in outreach recruiting participants to the Bond to Literacy program. Shirley was right away very interested in the Bond to Literacy program and proceeded to register herself and her young son on that same day. Attending the Bond to Literacy Program was the first time that Shirley and her son had come to Mount Pleasant Neighbourhood House.

Similar to many of our families and children in the Bond to Literacy program, this family had never been to preschool or daycare. Shirley and her son attended every single of the 12 sessions and talked about the importance of doing the activities learned in group at home, reflecting on how this has made their lives more fun.

In attending Mount Pleasant Neighbourhood House’s Bond to Literacy program, Shirley and Martin were able to also discover and engage in many of the other activities at Mount Pleasant Neighbourhood House.  In addition to the Bond to Literacy Program Shirley joined monthly Multicultural Cooking Club, weekly English Conversation Club, and utilized other services including  Employment program, Community Leadership and Learning Circle training. More recently, Shirley has taken on the role of a special helper at our House and seeks to participate and support our community as a way to continue to grow and give back.

This family is a success story in the sense that now Shirley and Martin have more knowledge of the many resources and programs in the community. Through utilizing resources from our House they are supported in their lifelong learning journey in a way that meets both the parent’s education and the child’s early literacy needs.