Our Story

A Decade of Dedication: Our Foundational Philosophy

We are very proud that Language for Life Society has had a presence in our community for over 10 years now.  It’s been a journey of commitment, passion, patience, and dedication served up with a lot of resilience and most importantly perseverance.

We have always done things a little differently at Language for Life and have always felt that to best serve adult students we need to fit the programing to the student and not the student to the programing. Therefore, everything we offer is always based on what our students have told us they need to achieve. Then, we help them navigate the pathway towards their language goals. This takes more time and attention, but our students are worth it. Every student who walks through our doors is like family, and we strive to always go above and beyond. 

 

Humble Beginnings: The Birth of Language for Life

Language for Life was founded by Gioia Morris and Tara Stewart in 2014. From our very humble beginnings, teaching evening ESL classes out of the Parkinson Rec Centre, we have grown Language for Life into its current thriving non-profit society. It has been our long time labour of love and seeing Language for Life Society grow and flourish is the reward. 

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The 'TALK Tutors' Initiative and Early Community Impact 
In 2015, along with providing ESL evening lessons at PRC, our very first volunteer program was initiated. ‘TALK Tutors’ was created in response to the influx of Syrian refugees at the time who needed basic literacy skills before they could attend English classes. Government funded language programs were being taxed with the numbers of new students, and the priority for classes was often given to the husbands in the household. Seeing this, Tara went ahead and secured funding which created a collaboration with KCR, Okanagan Regional Library, City of Kelowna Parks and Rec, and other local literacy specialists. The program trained volunteers to provide one to one language lessons to newcomer Syrian mothers while their children were cared for at the recreation daycare facility. Seeing the community value in this, Language for Life continued to administer this rewarding program long after the funding was complete. 

Gaining valuable experience and listening to our students in these early years, we quickly recognized the large gap and inequity (that still exists today) to accessing English language instruction for many of our immigrant community members holding work visas. With this, we worked tirelessly at Language for Life to create effective and affordable programming to meet the needs of these students. Designing original lessons tailored to each classroom's specific learning needs while also providing a language level assessment for each student. Throughout it all, never losing sight or commitment to always having a volunteer program running to keep our community involved in our cause.

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A Constant Challenge: Finding Our Forever Home
By far our biggest hurdle was securing affordable space for evening classes. We have actually had 5 homes in 10 years! By 2016, our services were outgrowing the confines of the rec centre evening programming, and we moved to a shared classroom space within a local business; of course, still wanting to collaborate in our community with those who have vested interest in helping newcomers. With our growing student following, we went from shared space within businesses (2016 – 2018), to acquiring a personal office and renting boardrooms within a hotel (2018 – 2022), then to a larger shared office and classroom within an educational facility (2022-2023). All of this while continuing to put our students’ best interests first. The journey had its ups and downs but was worth it in the end. We are happy to say we are finally in our forever home (2023 -) No more sharing! We are proud to have our own office and 2 private classrooms on Enterprise Way. Of course, we still, and will always, prioritize collaborating with other agencies to best service our students.

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A New Chapter: Becoming a Non-Profit Society

From day one, always wanting to keep programming affordable, funding was and continues to be a huge issue for us. Collaboration with other non-profits proved challenging as a private business, especially after coming through COVID times. It was decided that better progress for programming would be made by becoming a non-profit society. Therefore, in 2022, Language for Life Society was born. Although our mission and mandate have never changed, our voice did become stronger after we entered the non-profit world. With this new venture came more collaboration with other vested agencies, and representation on various community councils giving us a presence at the table to advocate for our students.

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Our non-profit restructuring has brought us many benefits but most of all our incredible board members who have helped guide Language for Life Society with their expertise and kindness. Please read all about our fabulous board members on our website. 

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Innovating for the Future: New Programs and Community Recognition
As you can see, it’s been quite the journey for our little non-profit society. Along with our ever evolving programming, we are proud to have created the very first English Language Instruction Navigation Guide now being used by agencies across our community. Learners and agencies who guide them now have access to choosing the specific language service that will best suit their needs and long term goals. Language for Life was also the recipient of a newly established federal government grant to initiate another volunteer program, called SAIM, which trains community members to work one to one with students taking the very challenging CELPIP (Canadian language exam).

 

Recognition from our community has meant so much to us, like being voted Best of Kelowna in ESL schools and Best English Tutors by Kelowna Community Votes. However, nothing compares to watching our students work hard, reach their goals, and become comfortable in their new community. Their success gives Canada its success, and we are proud to continue to be a part of their journey for many years to come.