Our Letters, Sounds and Words™ program (LSW) provides early literacy intervention to children in Year 2 Kindergarten to grade 2 whose teachers have identified them as struggling with their early literacy skills. Strong Start trains community volunteers to go into schools to work one-on-one with a child for 30 minutes 2 or 3 times per week for a 10-week period. The program is based on research and uses sound educational techniques to help children learn to read, complementing the work being done by teachers. 

The LSW program is game- and activity-based and has four Strands. The Letters Strand focuses on identifying and naming lower- and upper-case letters, the Sounds Strand focuses on the sounds letters make, the Building Words Strand involves using letter sounds to decode and build words and the Words Strand involves decoding and reading words in text. Each child is enrolled in 2-3 strands targeting their identified areas of need. Schools typically run two 10-week program Rounds per year, one in the fall and one in the spring. During each 10-week Round, children build on their prior knowledge and foundational literacy skills through fun, engaging games and activities and build relationships with caring, trusted adults. Some examples of activities include a bean bag alphabet toss, a fishing word game, board games, reading simple decodable books, matching games, etc. Children enjoy their time with their caring volunteers and have fun learning these essential skills and growing their confidence. The program also recognizes and supports that each child starts the program at a different level of ability. 

It is used in schools in the Simcoe Muskoka Catholic District School Board and Bruce Grey Catholic District School Board. 

 A Vulnerable Sector Police Check is required to work in a school setting.