TakingITGlobal

33 SPROUT IDEAS FELLOWSHIP IMPACT REPORT Jan Lim is an anthropology master's student and co- founder of Starts With One Toronto, a non-profit advocating for anti-racism and socioeconomic equity in schools. Their new brainchild, the Community E- Learning Initiative, was designed to address the educational support needs of newcomer families in Toronto. "The E-Learning Initiative is a program which provides free academic support to newcomer families in Toronto, who recently immigrated to Canada on refugee status and are currently low-income. Academic support consists of individual and group educational interventions, including one-on-one online tutoring, and group classes. The youth which we currently support are aged 5 to 18, and are mainly in elementary school and high school." Through the Fellowship's support, Jan was able to expand the program to include over 100 youth volunteers, providing learning support for 86 students from 46 first-generation, low-income newcomer families. Community E-Learning Initiative JAN LIM EDUCATION "One student, who has been a part of the E-Learning Initiative since our first Sprouts Fellowship grant, was able to meet their goal of entering the top Canadian university in Toronto. This was an incredible achievement for them, as well as our team, given that this student arrived just five years ago from Syria on refugee status, and, at the time, was receiving low grades in high school due to lack of English language ability," Jan remarks. Their project is aligned with seven of the SDGs, including ensuring Quality Education (Goal 4), Reducing Inequalities (Goal 10), and building Sustainable Cities and Communities (Goal 11). "Our biggest success with the project was being able to expand our program capacity in order to reach 20 new newcomer students who were in either elementary school or high school. These students were from six different families, and came from a variety of countries, from Eritrea, to Somalia, and Syria. Connecting with these families, and demonstrating to them that there are volunteers in their communities who are dedicated to their success and improving their lives, has been an incredibly meaningful experience, which we are grateful to the Fellowship program for enabling." Looking ahead, Jan envisions sustainable growth, aiming to provide programming to all students on the waitlist and leveraging partnerships to increase their impact.

• Cover