Help Owen raise money

I remember that my parents, as new immigrants to Canada, struggled to teach English to me and were burdened by how it was out of their control. With my mom in nursing school, and my dad unemployed, paid tutoring was entirely out of the question. I wish that LBN’s programs were around when I was in Elementary as we would have benefited greatly. It is because of this that I am so passionate about helping LBN grow as an organization so that we can impact more children, and do our part to combat inequality. What truly sets LBN apart is how accessible our free programs are, but we are in need of funding to meet the ever-growing demand for our programs.

Learning Buddies Network is a grass roots organization.  We provide one on one free tutoring for little kids in elementary school who are struggling with reading or math. The idea of LBN came from my medical practice—I am referred kids who are not picking up the basics of primary grade skills and get discouraged early. Many are children without any true disability, but who need a boost, and whose families are not in a position to do that. They don’t need a lot of expensive stuff, just some serious encouragement and direction in their learning from an interested young adult. So that is what we do, and it works! 

For LBN, ironically, Covid has provided us an opportunity. We have been able to extend our reach by shifting to online mentoring.  Online allows us to increase the frequency of sessions, and reach children who are outside of our usual group of schools. 

Since the summer of 2020, we have provided over 400 children each with 25 free mentoring sessions.  Our Little Buddies represent 37 schools in the Lower Mainland and beyond. In the coming year, we hope to reach 550 children.  

We count on the generosity of our supporters to be able to serve the needs of our many Little Buddies.  

Here are some Buddy quotes:  

 “I like learning new things with my mentor. Other kids should join learning buddies to make them smarter.”

“I didn’t like it before, but my mentor showed me that reading is awesome!”

For more information, visit:  www.learningbuddiesnetwork.com

Your support of Learning Buddies Network is greatly appreciated!