About
Strong Start ®: History
... Stimulating the Power of Community Effort
One day in August of 2000, Lyle S. Hallman made a phone call and said, “I’d like to talk to somebody about an idea I have. I'd like to do something to make sure very young children don't lag behind in learning to read.” And that’s how Strong Start® was started. Lyle had a way of making things happen. He was a businessman in Waterloo Region who started from humble beginnings and built a multi-million dollar enterprise through land development and building homes and apartments to accommodate the rapid population growth in the region.
His phone call came just as Lynda Silvester, an Elementary School Principal, was retiring. Lyle’s vision of a program that would be volunteer-driven, focused on the very young child and supported by the community, captured Lynda’s interest immediately. She searched for programs that might already exist, analyzed the needs of children, reflected on what reading skills could be addressed in a program implemented by volunteers, and studied the components of a good volunteer program. After consideration of all the factors, Lynda wrote a program full of games and activities so that kindergarten and grade one students could have fun working with a volunteer to practise what they were being taught in the classroom. They could practise learning the names of the letters of the alphabet, a sound each letter makes, how to learn words by sight and how to learn words by using the sounds of the letters. A four-hour training program was developed so that anyone could volunteer, without necessarily having experience in a related field. Lynda set about designing and building the infrastructure that would be needed for successful implementation. Many others soon joined to help Lynda to develop the project.
Lyle, a very generous philanthropist, cared deeply about his community and was always focused on determining what would make it strong. Waterloo Region benefited greatly from his donations to many initiatives during his lifetime. When he identified something that he thought would make a lasting difference, he was excited about doing what he could to make it happen. Strong Start® was established as a community project that would involve a lot of people who would feel the same way about their community.
The program was piloted in 2 schools in the spring of 2001 and immediately it was evident that it had hit a “market niche”. Requests for the program flooded in and there is still a waiting list of schools wanting to start the program. Schools have been added as funding was available and as the infrastructure of the project developed to be strong enough to support growth successfully. Results of the testing done with each child and extensive feedback from volunteers and teachers guided revisions and created the proof that the program is effective in meeting its goals.
This first Strong Start® program called Letters, Sounds and Words is now being used in several communities in southwestern Ontario. The Strong Start® organization has grown rapidly and is now working on adding new programs to continue its efforts to support early literacy development in children from birth to age 10.
What is especially noteworthy about the late Lyle S. Hallman is that he saw the wisdom of investing in the young child, even though that child would not be a potential employee for any business for maybe 15 to 20 years. Literacy skills are the strongest indicator of a child’s future success in life. In addition, the percentage of the population that reads at an acceptable level is a great predictor of the success of a community and a country in maintaining economic growth and an excellent quality of life. Therefore, the community as a whole needs to take responsibility for helping children learn to read.
Now in many communities corporations, service clubs, Foundations and individuals join together to fund Strong Start®. Many people come forward to volunteer to implement the programs. The Strong Start® project is, for sure, a great example of a community effort to promote literacy.
 |
 |
Lyle S. Hallman, 1922-2003 |
Lynda Silvester |
Lyle S. Hallman was killed in a car accident in October 2003, but his vision and his influence live on in many ways throughout our community.
