National Bank funding expands one-on-one high-impact tutoring, online reading volunteer programs and original Indigenous storybook creation in Alberta and British Columbia through 2029.

TORONTO (September 2026) — Hundreds more Indigenous children in Alberta and British Columbia will receive evidence-based literacy support over the next three years, through a new $300,000 commitment from National Bank to Chapter One programs.

The agreement sees National Bank contributing $100,000 annually during the 2026-27 through 2028-29 school years, to support three Chapter One programs: high impact tutoring (delivered virtually on computers installed in classrooms and at home on family smartphones), online reading volunteers, and the co-creation of original Indigenous children's e-storybooks.

The funding is expected to reach up to 600 students through in-school programming, up to 240 children paired with online reading volunteers, and hundreds more children through at-home tutoring in six communities across the two provinces. It will also support the creation of six original e-storybooks, co-created with Indigenous writers, illustrators and Elders.

Reading tutoring is delivered by trained Early Literacy Interventionists (ELIs) using Chapter One’s high impact tutoring model, characterized by short, frequent sessions, typically 10 minutes in duration, up to five times a week. A peer-reviewed study led by Stanford University researchers found students who received Chapter One’s tutoring were twice as likely to reach grade-level reading benchmarks within a year, and scored 35 per cent higher in fluency after a second year.

Early literacy remains a significant challenge across Canada. Each year, 100,000 students finish Grade 3 unable to read at grade level, making them four times less likely to graduate high school. Indigenous communities are disproportionately affected: one Canadian study found that 60 per cent of Indigenous adults lack the literacy skills the labour market requires, a gap linked to poverty, housing instability and other systemic barriers.

Building on Six Years of Literacy Support

National Bank's partnership with Chapter One began in 2020 through Canadian Western Bank, which became part of National Bank in February 2025. Since then, the partnership has funded one-on-one literacy tutoring for 390+ children, supported the creation of seven Indigenous children's e-storybooks co-developed with Indigenous writers, illustrators and Elders, and engaged 118 employees as online reading volunteers, who have delivered more than 1,350 weekly reading sessions. The renewed agreement extends that work through 2029.

-------------

About Chapter One

Chapter One is a global nonprofit and Canadian registered charity that transforms children's futures by providing one-on-one literacy tutoring at the time they need it most. In addition to its high impact tutoring and online reading volunteer programs, Chapter One co-creates original children's e-storybooks with the communities it serves, collaborating with Indigenous writers, illustrators, educators and Elders to develop early readers that reflect Indigenous themes, perspectives and priorities. To support the communities’ language revitalization efforts, Chapter One records audio clips of Elders speaking foundational words in the communities' first languages and embeds them into the e-books to help ground children in their culture as they learn to read in English. The storybooks are available to everyone, everywhere, in Chapter One's Global Free Library.

For more information, visit chapterone.ca