Indigenous Summer Literacy Camps and The Lieutenant Governor of Ontario’s Indigenous Summer Reading Camps
The Indigenous Summer Literacy Camps program began in 2005 – a vision of the former Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, the Hon. James Bartleman, who is a member of the Mnjikaning First Nation. The pilot was held in five fly-in First Nations in Northern Ontario that year and has since grown to serve thousands of children and youth in over 100 FNMI communities across Canada each year. The camps are held in partnership with the leadership in each community, and are also supported by many Lieutenant Governors across the country. In Ontario, the camps are supported by The Hon. Elizabeth Dowdeswell, Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, and are known as the
Lieutenant Governor’s Indigenous Summer Reading Camps.
The camps support FNMI student success in school by complementing the formal education system and responding to a need for quality learning supports in rural, remote, and isolated communities, especially during the summer months. The camps help prevent summer learning loss—the decline in student performance between school years—and promote a love of reading and learning so that students return to school better prepared to learn and succeed. Campers are provided with safe and supportive learning environments where they take part in many types of fun and educational activities, including reading, storytelling, writing, arts and crafts, music, science experiments, field trips, and more: all of which include embedded elements of literacy and numeracy. Parents, Elders and community members are also encouraged to take part in the camps by sharing their skills and knowledge, thus making the camps a community-wide initiative.
Program Objectives:
- Prevent summer learning loss
- Nurture a love of reading and learning
- Build on the literacy and numeracy skills of campers
- Promote parental and community involvement in the children’s learning
- Strengthen community capacity and build community partnerships
Highlights and Impacts from 2019:
- 92% of parents said their children read more at home after attending camp
- Campers benefitted from 6,831 visits by parents, Elders, and community members
- Camps positively complements classroom teaching according to 82% of teachers surveyed nationally
- This year, 17 communities hosted camps for the first time
Testimonials:
- “Campers loved all the awesome STEM activities! STEM activities were the most engaging for the children. Volcanoes, tie dye, bubbles and baking, and slime.”—Camp Counsellor, Beaver Lake Cree Nation, AB
- “My daughter wants to become a teacher when she’s done school, and my son wants to become a police officer.”—Parent, Slate Falls First Nation, ON
2020 National Camp Report