Family literacy programs are provided province-wide by Early Years Centres. Funding for Early Years Centres, from the Ministry of Children and Youth Services, began in the early 2000s. According to the Early Years website:

An Ontario Early Years Centre is a place for children up to the age of six and their parents and caregivers to take part in programs and activities together. Parents and caregivers can also get information about their children’s development and about services to support that development.

Programs and services provided by Early Years Centres are free to all parents and caregivers of young children. Typical programs and services include early learning and literacy programs for parents and children and programs to help parents and caregivers in all aspects of early child development.

Parenting and Family Literacy Centres, which are based in local school boards, continue to be funded by the Ministry of Education. In June 2007, the provincial government announced it was investing $6 million in 86 centres across Ontario (54 existing centres in Toronto and 32 new centres throughout the province).

In Ontario, the Raise-a-Reader campaign is active in Toronto, Hamilton, Ottawa and Windsor. In each of these cities, funds raised go to a variety of organizations. For example, in 2006 funds from the Toronto campaign went to organizations such as the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, Frontier College and World Literacy of Canada; in Ottawa Alternative Learning Styles and Outlooks (ALSO), the Ottawa Public Library’s Shuttle Bus/Navette biblio and the Ottawa Senators Foundation were recipients; in Hamilton, recipients included the Niagara West Employment and Learning Resource Centre, the Hamilton Native Learning Centre and The Hamilton Spectator Newspaper in Education program; in Windsor donations went to Computers for Kids, the Learning Disabilities Association of Windsor and Essex County and the Windsor Public Library’s Book Buddy Program.

Who delivers family literacy in Ontario?

When looking at how family literacy is funded in Ontario a picture of who delivers family literacy begins to emerge: school-boards that have Parenting and Family Literacy Centres and Early Years Centres. Many community-based literacy agencies, whose primary focus is on adult literacy, do provide some type of family literacy programming. When funding is not available from the government, this type of programming is often supported by fund-raising.