Dear learners, tutors, members and friends of ELTOC,

We hope this finds you and your families well as we embark on a new year with cautious optimism that our community’s resilience in adhering to the emergency measures and stay at home orders are helping to contain the spread of the virus. It is time to step back and acknowledge how much each and every one of you has achieved since March 2020 in assisting in the transition of ELTOC’s operations and program to online, ensuring that the necessary preventative measures and safeguards are in place and followed during these challenging times. It has taken tireless energy, adaptability, innovative thinking, patience and understanding on the part of our staff, volunteers and learners and we deeply appreciate your ongoing commitment to ELTOC’s mission.

We have learned a lot throughout this transition and continue to learn, sharing knowledge and collaborating through our workshops, networking with our partners and community outreach. Our donor program is doing well as our supporters understand our new needs for online learning materials and tools. We sincerely thank our donors for supporting us during this critical period. Our funder, IRCC, continues to provide tremendous support, and we are looking ahead to a productive new fiscal year starting in April.

While the vaccine rollout has brought a much-welcomed positive upturn and a light to what has seemed to be, at times, an endless tunnel, it is actually more important than ever to continue to practice the required safety measures of public health and government authorities. With that in mind, ELTOC will operate online for the foreseeable future, including offering tutoring and support virtually for our volunteers and tutors. There will continue to be no in-person contact between tutors and staff, tutors and learners and staff and learners. We would like to remind you that ELTOC’s Risk Assessment Committee, which we have referenced in previous communications and consists of representatives from the Board, staff and tutors, will review new developments that may occur and, where warranted, make recommendations to the Board, while continuing to ensure safe operating and volunteer environments. This could include introducing limited in-person tutoring services in outdoor spaces for select literacy learners, with appropriate safety measures in place. Unfortunately, there are currently unknown variables including COVID-19 variants and vaccination supply, scheduling and length of effectiveness. These variables prevent us from knowing precisely when and even if we can introduce such a change.

We recognize that online learning is not the right fit for some tutors and learners and we look forward to the day when we can launch a safe re-entry plan to in-person tutoring and welcome you back. We also look forward to applying the virtual learning skills that we have developed to enhance our program in the future where they would provide added-value.

Once again, Tutors, we ask that you let your learner(s) know that this letter has been posted on our website and that at the top right of the page, they can use the SELECT LANGUAGE option to have the information translated into another language.

We will continue to update you on future developments as we move forward along this path of staying apart physically to continue to be together. We thank you for continuing to walk this path with us and look forward to the promise of better times ahead.

Until then, please stay safe.
Giselle Leduc, Executive Director and the ELTOC Board of Directors