In June 2022, Start2Finish Founder & Executive Director, Brian Warren, was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws from McMaster University for his over 20 years of making social change for children in Hamilton and across the nation.

We worked with Canadian digital design firm TTT Studios to develop and launch an award-winning and innovative “Brainworx!” technology platform to house our virtual program during and beyond COVID-19. TTT featured S2F as a case study on their international website.

Out of 1,300 applicants from all over North America, Start2Finish was one of 15 TD Ready Challenge recipients in 2020, and one of only 4 who received a full $1,000,000. The funds were granted to develop and scale our Brainworx! virtual learning platform.

We were invited to present at the 2023 World Literacy Summit in Oxford, UK around our ground-breaking approach, which combines literacy with physical activity and social-emotional learning to foster whole-child well-being, graduation, and long-term success.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, our Daily 20 virtual physical activity program was selected to be included as a learning resource on the Ontario Ministry of Education’s official “Learn at Home” website, accessible to 2,000,000 children within 72 school boards province-wide.

We launched the Indigenous “LIT Project” in 2022 by providing innovative book vending machines filled with Indigenous-authored books to 4 friendship/cultural centres and schools. The project has now expanded to 12 locations, serving over 2,000 children (24,000 books/yr).

Queen Camilla had the opportunity to try out our book vending machine in Ottawa on her 2022 visit to Canada with King Charles. She was so inspired that she and the then Prince nominated Start2Finish for a Royal Tour donation from the Government of Canada!

Born out of tumultuous times, the Thinkers & Doers virtual talk series aims to connect theory and practice through generative conversations. Themes looked at “Mirrors & Windows: Literacy Towards Healing & Thriving”, “Refusals”, and “Conversations in Canadian Philanthropy”.

The “Voices: Indigenous Reading Circle” series brought together prominent Indigenous children’s authors to discuss the importance of culture and language in their work. Themes were based around creating “Alternative Narratives” and “Otherwise Futures”.

We have a body of evidence to support our ongoing impact in communities. In partnership with our Start2Finish Scientific Advisory Group, independent researchers, Hello Insight and other research groups, we have been able to gather quantitative data to affirm the transformative results of our programming over the past two decades.

Start2Finish was selected to give a poster presentation at the 10th International Meeting on Indigenous Child Health in Tulsa, OK in 2023. We had the opportunity to speak with doctors, educators, researchers, medical students and Indigenous healthcare providers about our culturally responsive co-labouration.

Our Start2Finish Scientific Advisory Group is comprised of some of Canada’s leading researchers in various domains of child well-being who have recognized our programs as a solution to comprehensively and effectively address the social determinants that impact the health, education, behaviour and, therefore, future of children living in poverty.

We conducted virtual presentations at Indspire’s National Gathering for Indigenous Education in both 2022 and 2023. Topics included “Open Source Co-labour-ation” and “Digging Up Old Wells: Cultivating Black & Indigenous Solidarity Practices”.

Start2Finish sponsored and presented at the 2022 Ontario Physical Literacy Summit, the largest physical literacy conference in Canada, which virtually brought together 400+ teachers, educators, students, coaches and leaders to engage, promote and educate the value/ benefits of physical literacy.

S2F has been recognized for our expertise in the field of national child well-being, as well as our work in local communities. We have been featured in numerous television, radio and print mediums including CBC News, Global TV, CTV, CityTV, Rogers Media, and more.