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Looking Back on 2016

We can’t believe another year has come and gone.

2016 has been an amazing year for Little Voice and we couldn’t have done it without you!

Each year, Little Voice sets a number of goals that will enable us to plan for the future and make a difference in our community! This past year, Little Voice aimed to increase our outreach, launch our movement, and increase our donations to the Alzheimer Society of Canada. Here’s a look back at 2016 and how we managed to reach our goals:

Outreach

Thanks to our community, Little Voice was able to increase our outreach efforts through a number of media outlets:

We were also able to meet many more of our readers at a number of our local Indigo, Chapters and Coles events:

Meeting our readers in person has always been a great opportunity for us to answer your questions and see the impact our book has had in your homes and schools. We hope to put on many more events this upcoming year and to meet many more of you at our local events.

The Little Voice Movement

This past Summer, Little Voice launched our official movement. The movement was our way to give back, not only to the Alzheimer Society of Canada, but to all those searching for a way to fundraise in their communities.

Thanks to CTV and Upfront Ottawa, we were able to share our movement with all of you:

By registering to become an Little Voice Ambassador, you can create your own inspirational movement in your community. Whether you choose to support your school, an important cause, or your future, Little Voice will donate $5 dollars from every book sale you’ve made to support your movement.

You can learn more about our movement on our website and sign-up today … for free!

The Forget Me Not Project

Every year, since publishing Little Voice, we have challenged ourselves to grow our donations to the Alzheimer Society of Canada through the Forget Me Not Project. By participating in the Walk for Alzheimers, Little Voice has been able to work with our local Alzheimer Society chapter and with YOU to fundraise in support of Alzheimer’s research, programs and services! This past year, through your generosity, Little Voice was able to raise $1, 875 dollars.

Little Voice was also very proud to put on the Dream Big Dream, Girl Luncheon that successfully raised $2,000 dollars in support of the Alzheimer Society. Together, we were able to not only get together and feel inspired, but we were also able to empower the next generation of dreamers to make a difference in their own communities.

A BIG thank you to all those who attended and to our guest speakers, sponsors and the Dream, Girl film, which made the event possible!

The New Year is an amazing opportunity to look back on all the little moments that made up the sum of our entire year. It’s a chance to be grateful for all the positivity that came in to your life, to examine where you can grow, and to challenge yourself to reach new heights in the year ahead.

For Little Voice, a new year is an opportunity for us to set new goals that will allow us to reach more readers and support many more causes. It’s an opportunity to say thank you for believing in our message and vision and sharing our book with your students, children, family and friends.

But more importantly, it is a perfect reminder for each and every one of us to listen to our little voice and to not let another year go by where we ignore it.

We wish you all a very Happy New Year and cannot wait to share what we have planned for 2017 with all of you!

Happy 2nd Birthday Little Voice!

There is something about birthdays that forces us to look back on the year that has passed. It’s an opportunity for us to cherish the memories we gained, the friendships we created, and the work we have accomplished. For Little Voice, turning two is an opportunity to do just that.

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It’s amazing to see how far Little Voice has come. This past year, Little Voice proved to our community that we are not only a children’s book but a movement that is determined to make a difference. Our official launch of our movement was an extraordinary moment for us; it was a chance to share with the world not only our story but the vision that makes Little Voice the social enterprise that it is. We made it clear that with our profits we wanted to do good in the world, whether that be through supporting a charitable cause, a community initiative or a child’s education. We wanted to inspire the next generation to be advocates for causes they believe in and to enable them to fundraise and give back wherever possible. We wanted to empower the little voice inside each and every one of you that will enable you to chase your dreams and make a difference in this world.

These past two years have been nothing short of amazing. We’ve been extremely blessed to have your support day in and day out in all that we do. We’ve made friends, we’ve made readers, and, more importantly, we made believers out of all of you. We made you believe in yourself once more, in your passions, in your talents, and in the dreams that perhaps you slowly forgot.

new-version-of-lvI’ll never forget the feeling I had after seeing Little Voice come to life for the first time. After hiding my writing for so long, and from so many, I was finally ready to share my writing with the world. While it was the most amazing feeling to see my dream come to life, it was also one of the most scariest moments of my life. For a lot of people, it can sometimes be quite frightening to share their true passion, what inspires them, or who they truly are. This was certainly true for me. I was scared of what people may think of my work, and was almost hesitant at first to take on this adventure. But Little Voice made me a believer in myself, it taught me to never give up and to chase my dream of becoming an author. In the same way that Little Voice awakened my dreams, I hope these past two years it has been able to awaken something inside you too.
– Amanda Bernardo, Author

Today, as we celebrate Little Voice’s second birthday, we also want to celebrate the little voice inside each and every one of you. Because of that voice, so many of you are doing so much good in this world and that is what we at Little Voice hope to continue to inspire you to do  each and every year.

Happy Birthday Little Voice!

Please join us on Saturday, December 3rd at the Gloucester Chapters location in Ottawa as we celebrate Little Voice’s birthday!

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Little Voice Nominated for the Ottawa Social Impact Awards

This October, Little Voice was nominated for the Ottawa Social Impact Awards! 

The Ottawa Social Impact Awards are recognizing and celebrating the leaders in our community who are making a positive social impact through innovative, collaborative, and scalable initiatives and enterprises. A partnership between Impact Hub Ottawa and the City of Ottawa, the inaugural Awards seek to:

  • Highlight Ottawa-based community initiatives and social enterprises that have significant potential for growth and lasting impact;
  • Emphasize the power of the collective rather than the individual; and
  • Recognize social innovation in our community that is turning the status quo upside down.

Today, Little Voice is very excited to not only share this nomination with all of you but a special feature with CBC Ottawa on Our #Ottawa.

This interview certainly helped both Samantha and I realize how far we’ve come and how much farther we want to go. What started as a simple poem on a scrap piece of paper has involved into a social enterprise I am so proud to have created with Samantha. We are continuously motivated by your feedback and involvement with our platform and hope to continue to inspire you as our movement and vision grows.
– Amanda Bernardo, Author

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“We wanted kids to feel like they belong, for them to have a book that they could relate to. When you have a kid that feels inspired it’s really rewarding to think that we created something that sparked that inspiration within them.”

It was an amazing experience to be featured with CBC Ottawa and we are very excited to share the final product today with all of you! Special thank you to CBC for also highlighting our nomination in the upcoming Ottawa Social Impact Awards! Please vote for Little Voice by visiting http://ottawa.impacthub.net/ci…/ottawa-social-impact-awards/ to help us grow our platform, voting ends November 4, 2016!

You can now watch our full feature on #OurOttawa here: http://www.cbc.ca/player/play/796499011649

The GCWCC Movement

Little Voice is very excited to be supporting this year’s Government of Canada Workplace Charitable Campaign (GCWCC) through our movement!

The Government of Canada Workplace Charitable Campaign (GCWCC) is a charitable giving option developed exclusively for federal public servants and federal retirees. The annual GCWCC takes place in federal workplaces across the country during the fall campaign period (September to December).

Through the GCWCC, public servants can support United Ways/Centraides, HealthPartners or any other registered Canadian charity of their choosing. United Way, a trusted community partner with a history of making wise investments, manages the campaign on behalf of the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat.

From October 4, 2016 to December 5, 2016, the GCWCC Movement will run using the coupon code “gcwcc”.

With every purchase of Little Voice using this code, Little Voice will donate $5 dollars from each book sale to this year’s campaign. Get involved by sharing our shop link and the movement code with your work, friends, family and even social media!

For those working in the Gatineau area, the coupon code will also enable free shipping for pick-up at 30 Rue Victoria, Gatineau, Quebec.

Order your copy of Little Voice today and see how the power of our movement can support amazing causes in our community.

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Back to School with Little Voice

Are you getting ready for back to school? This time of the year usually means you’ve already started a checklist for school supplies, clothes, lunch boxes, sneakers – the list seems truly endless!

If you’re getting your toddler ready for kindergarten four, or maybe your child for grade six, it may seem that getting them ready for university or college seems pretty far off. But is it?

As parents, you think the best thing you can do for your children is to encourage them to go to college and get a good education — and, hopefully, that will help them land good jobs with higher earning power than if they had high school diplomas alone. But that’s an expensive goal. It’s especially daunting considering that many parents are still paying off their own student loans, while their children born today could end up paying up to four times the current price for tuition if inflation keeps up, according to finaid.org.

So, what do you do? Open an RESP? A TFSA? Maybe a separate account or even a trust?

What if there was a simple way to increase your contributions while also supporting your community and an important cause? What if all it took was simply sharing a little inspiration? Would you start saving for your child’s education?
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2015: Making the Little Moments Count

2015 was definitely a game changer

Little Voice was first thought up in 2013, published in late 2014 and a movement by 2015. 2015 was the year we officially launched our story, our movement and our fundraising efforts. It’s the year where everything slowly began to take shape.

It all started with a major push right here in our community. Though I’ve always had a entrepreneurial bug within me, this was my first time setting out and branding an entire movement, managing an entire production, and ultimately publishing a story. I didn’t always know what direction I would take; I didn’t always get the answers I wanted; but I never ever gave up. I trusted my own little voice to guide me and sure enough, every little step I took proved to be one step closer in the right direction.

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Happy Thanksgiving 2015

The month of October always reminds me of when I first set out to publish Little Voice.

Two years ago, I was looking for the inspiration and motivation to set me on the path I am now fortunate enough to be on today. I never would have imagined that I would have transformed the same inspirational poem that got me chasing my dreams into a children’s book that would encourage others to chase their own.

Almost a year later since we officially released Little Voice on December 2, 2014 … I am overwhelmed by how many lives my story has been able to touch, and more importantly, thankful for all the support I have received to get me here today.

Thanksgiving reminds us to be thankful for our family and friends but also for the small accomplishments that make up the sum of our lives, the memories that shape who we are and yes, even the difficult times that have allowed us to evolve into who we needed to become.

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Little Voice Gives Back

Little Voice had a great week at Parks Canada for the GCWCC Book Sale!

After 3 days of sharing our story with public servants in the area, Little Voice was able to donate $91 back into the Campaign and in support of the Alzheimer Society of Canada!

A BIG thank you to all those who supported this cause by purchasing a copy of our book and donating to our Alzheimer Society of Canada Donation Jar!

Parks Canada Book Sale

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A Pre-Order Melody

Because we know how much you love our poems, the launch of our pre-orders wouldn’t be the same without a special edition to thank you all and remind you just amazing you all truly are!

Our pre-orders are packed and ready to go!
You’ll soon find your book outside your door.
We’re so excited to have gotten where we are.

The mailman’s here, it’s early morn
He grabbed your books and honked his horn
Now off they go to all those near and far!

So get inspired and smile for me
Tell us that you’re proud to be
Who you are and who you can become!

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La petite voix @ Chapters Gloucester

After only 10 months of releasing Little Voice, we are very excited to invite you to join us at our special weekend long event hosted by Indigo, Chapters and Coles​ for the release of La petite voix!

Join us Saturday, September 26 and Sunday, September 27 from12:00pm to 4:00pm at the Chapters Gloucester location in Ottawa for your chance to meet Little Voice’s author Amanda Bernardo and illustrator Samantha Clusiau-Lawlor!

BUT WAIT … that’s not all!

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