We create family out of community because our program participants, community partners, staff, donors, directors, and volunteers celebrate each other.

Humanity likely descends from a single common ancestor who lived over a hundred thousand years ago. We imagine that she sat by a fire, under the stars, and told stories to her descendants. These were likely stories about beauty and power. That’s what literacy does—it enables us to share our stories with each other.

As we sit beside our program participants, we learn their stories. We want to see them succeed as we would our own family.

Few good things are done outside of kindness.

We hope that each of our participants leaves our program believing they are worthy of kindness. And that they continue to pass that kindness on to others. This is more important than if children have perfect grammar or spelling.

We work to ensure that every minute of our interactions with our participants, partners, volunteers, and donors is accomplished with empathy and joy.

Our participants and community partners are already superheroes.

Our national partners demonstrate time and again that literacy is one of the best ways a community can become strong, safe, and connected. Their love and dedication remind us that they are all superheroes, whether it be in a global pandemic, a racial reckoning, or in the midst of systemic inequity.

We go beyond representation by honouring experiences and identities. Our participants are the inspiration for our workbooks, and show us how powerful each of us can be. We highlight the abilities and accomplishments that any one of us can achieve with just one person believing in us.

Every time a child’s story is told, we have the opportunity to understand a little better and love a little more openly.

We honour and support resourcefulness and personal stories by listening, affirming, encouraging, and truly seeing our participants. They are the new, proud guardians of their own legends. They are the builders of the future.

The only outcome that truly matters is that our program participants leave our programs feeling proud and capable. If they believe they can change the world, they will!

We ensure that our program participants receive support specifically tailored for them. We do this by using an effective and simple assessment process. ELF has a methodology that anyone can apply to ensure that the youth they support will defy expectations.

Participants with varying abilities, who are neuro-diverse, who have differing identities, and who face systemic barriers, succeed in ELF programs because the ELF believes they can, and we facilitate the space for them to do so.

Our literacy outcomes are extraordinary because we never doubt that our participants will be anything but extraordinary.

Literacy is a weapon against climate change, environmental collapse, and species extinction.

You can save it if you can read about it.

Our program participants are up and coming leaders in a world filled with inequality and environmental challenges. They need all the tools that the ELF can offer—in order to meet these challenges and to lead.

Just as we must love our selves, our family, our friends, and our community, we believe in instilling a deep and gracious love for our Earth. The ELF is always working towards this. A model of sustainability permeates everything we do, from the stories we tell, to the choices we make, and the actions we take.

The ELF has had a sustainable; low-carbon footprint; work-from-home-when-possible model since our inception. We use pre-existing spaces to run our programs. We reduced, reused, repurposed, and recycled long before those things were cool to do.

Our model is simple. Our most valuable resource is our community.