Raise-a-Reader: DTES program helps Aboriginal families read, connect

Once a week, Erica Lilly transforms a windowless meeting room on the third-floor of YWCA Crabtree Corner into a room of possibilities. Article content

Out goes the table and chairs, replaced by two bean bags and a giant stuffed bear, a soft rug and play mat, toys and stacks of books. Article content Article content

In the corner, there’s coffee, tea, and snacks, ready to welcome parents and tots attending Books, Bags and Babies, a long-standing early literacy program for Aboriginal families.

It was the community that clamoured for the program, which started in the late ’80s and early ’90s as “a space for Indigenous people to feel safe and to access literature at little to no cost,” said Erica Lilly, who runs the program, nicknamed BBB.

Since then, it has been a steady, reassuring p