By Hulene Montgomery
Published in June 2010
Speech given at the 23rd Annual Mayors’ Dinner
I want to begin by thanking The Working Centre – that wonderful community of people – who week after week – work with integrity, passion and perseverance helping people find jobs, housing, health care and a community in which they belong.
I want to thank them for organizing the Mayors’ Dinner and providing us with an opportunity to say thank you to our community’s sung and unsung heroes.
Since its inception 23 years ago, The Mayors’ Dinner has honoured people’s contributions in fields as diverse as Affordable Housing, The Environment, Sports and Recreation, Philanthropy, Multiculturalism, and Health Care.
Tonight we focus on the field of education & child development by shining a light on the contributions of Lynda Silvester, who in her volunteer and professional roles as educator, co-founder of the remarkable children’s literacy program, Strong Start, and community volunteer has dedicated her life to building a community in which all of our children are supported and encouraged to reach their full potential.
Lynda Silvester understands the importance of investing in children and youth – on an individual basis, in families, in neighbourhoods and at the community level.
She understands from her lived experience as well as from her keen grasp of the research that if we want a healthy and prosperous community in the future, we need to make sure all children have the opportunity to develop intellectually, socially and emotionally.
Lynda has a gift of seeing people’s potential and knowing how to work with them to reach it.
Lynda’s children Karen and Kevin recall the years when Lynda taught special education: They said: “Mom had a knack of being able to identify the best way for each person to learn. And she would wear many hats – teacher, friend, counsellor, mediator and team player as she worked with them and their families to help them learn.”
Gord Beckenhauer who worked with Lynda as a fellow educator told me:
“Lynda believed that all kids can succeed if they are provided with the right supports at the right time that capitalize on their individual learning styles. “
For 35 years in a variety of roles from classroom teacher to principal Lynda applied her attitude of focusing on the positive, her creativity, passion and her determination to help children, teachers, and whole schools develop their potential!
Mieke Schroeder and Inge Ford, retired educators now part of the Strong Start team, spoke of Lynda’s role in strengthening the capacity of the school.
“Lynda has always had the skill and desire to promote community partnerships. She recognized the importance of school-community relationships and developed a school climate in which these partnerships were created and fostered.”
When Lynda retired she took the knowledge, skills, and relationships she had developed as an educator and applied them to her new often full-time role as a community volunteer.
Christine Bird of the Alliance for Children and Youth and Barb Hill told me how Lynda developed a train the trainer program to promote a strength based approach for the community to support children and youth. They said she ended doing more training sessions than anyone! What an inspiration!
Lynda’s community development approach moved from building partnerships to building broad-based coalitions and community-wide approaches to create a community for our children to gain the skills, qualities and values to help them grow into healthy, productive members of our society.
Andrea Reist is Director of Child and Family Health at the Region. Andrea, like Lynda and like so many of you here tonight is a champion for children and youth in our community. She says of Lynda:
“Lynda has been a tireless advocate for creating environments to support children in reaching their full potential. She understands that a learning environment starts long before, and reaches far beyond, the standard classroom, and that we all have a role to play in raising our children.”
I remember Lynda’s and her consistent message that we need to think beyond what currently exists to build a more comprehensive system for young children and their families.
She was talking integration, long before integration was a term that others were ready to entertain.
She challenged the status quo and encouraged people to look for ways to work together to address gaps and duplications in our local children’s services system.
Of course, she has done much more than just encourage others to think outside the box and work across sectors. She has also been instrumental in making it happen on the ground.
Ken, Lynda’s husband, best friend and constant supporter told me Lynda was thinking outside of the box long before this was a common concept.
He also told me that when Lynda responded to the challenge of developing a children’s literacy program she never dreamed how far-reaching and long lasting its impact would be.
The program Lynda created, Strong Start, is a great children’s literacy program which involves volunteers working with 5 & 6 year old children to help them develop early literacy skills.
Since its beginnings in 2000 with a handful of volunteers working in two schools, Strong Start has grown to a dedicated group of over 1800 volunteers working with over 1900 children each year in 124 schools throughout Waterloo Region, Wellington County, Brant County and beyond. This innovative “made in Waterloo” program is now being expanded through-out the province!
In response to community and school requests, Strong Start adapted the children’s literacy program for English as a Second Language students; it partnered with the Get Ready for School program to provide literacy skills for pre-school children.
And an exciting new program for newborns is about to be launched by a collaborative of agencies including Strong Start, KidsAbility, Project Read and 17 other agencies.
Our eight year old granddaughter, Imogen, is a happy, confident graduate of the Strong Start program. This is what she has to say of her experience.
“When I was six years old, I went to Strong Start. I went from the lowest reading level in my class to one of the highest.
I love reading! I just love it. If you know someone who can’t read, I’d tell them to go to Strong Start.”
Imogen is just one of over 10,000 children have been helped to learn to read and to gain self- confidence and joy.
So, how did one woman achieve so much?
Well she started with a vision-a vision of what could be
- Guided by values
- Taking care of the details
- Engaging people
- Building Partnerships
- And participating to build broad-based community solutions
Please join me in thanking Lynda Silvester for her lifetime commitment and contributions towards building a community in which all of our children can thrive and grow!
