Lever of Change

Early Learning and Care

The ability to read and understand and then apply that knowledge enables people to navigate through life. As such, literacy and education are critical components of poverty reduction.

At age 3, children need to develop the vocabulary they need to be school-ready at age 6, and to be able to successfully make the shift at age 9 from learning to read, to reading to learn—so they can succeed in school and in life.

Early learning influences adulthood success, so one of our greatest assets against adulthood poverty is early education.

A collaborative effort launched the Left Unread movement in the spring of 2023 to create urgency around children and literacy, to state that no child should be left unread. The movement benefited from bold imagery and a variety of tools and events to help spread the words. Some of the evidence for this movement leveraged data from The Case for Literacy in Alberta. There are only upsides to addressing low literacy. It can only enhance the long-term economic and social wellbeing of our communities.

Each lever of change links to one or more of the 94 calls to action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Early Learning and Care links to #1, #2, #4, #8, #55, #70, #71, #75, #81, and #82.