Turn books into powerful conversations with Little Voice Books!

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A Look Back on 2017

And just like that another year has come and gone… 

2017 was a BIG year! We celebrated three years in business, with a growing audience of 4,000+; published our newest book The Lighthouse; established the Be the Light Campaign in support of the National Canadian Mental Health Association; continued our fundraising efforts in support of Alzheimer’s research by participating in the 2017 Walk For Alzheimer’s; hosted eight book signings in our hometown of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; launched our brand new website;  made it on Indigo.ca; and supported three new movements in our community. While all of this was pretty big, something even bigger happened in 2017.

By taking the leap from one book title to two, Little Voice decided it was time to grow! While Amanda and Samantha originally created Little Voice with the goal of publishing one book, they realized with the launch of The Lighthouse that they had the passion and drive to publish many more! And so, Little Voice became Little Voice Books – a local Ottawa publishing house with the goal of creating awareness for causes and initiatives through the power of literature and illustration.

Little Voice Books is so thrilled to be able to fill a gap in literature by creating children’s books that trigger a meaningful conversation, whether it is through the words on the page or the illustrations that accompany them.

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Happy Canada 150!

With Canada 150 just around the corner, we wanted to take a moment to say

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CANADA!

We are so proud to be an all Canadian children’s book – written, illustrated and printed right here in the country we call home.
 
To us, being Canadian means more than just identifying with the country we live in; it’s a symbol of who we are and who we hope our children will become. Canadians are humble, kind, respectful, loving and diverse, we are a melting pot of so many amazing attributes of humanity that we can’t help but smile when we say: I am Canadian.
 
Here at Little Voice, we are so proud to be Canadian and we can’t wait to share our new story The Lighthouse with all of you as our #Canada150 gift to you! Stay tuned!
 
Wishing you all a safe and happy weekend!

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

INTRODUCING THE LITTLE VOICE MOVEMENT

After almost one year in the making … here we are. Today, Little Voice is extremely excited to introduce to the world for the very first time …

The Little Voice Movement

In December 2014, the Little Voice team set out to create a children’s book we hoped would inspire all those who would read it. We wanted to not only develop a book that would encourage children to listen to their inner voice and chase their dreams, but also a platform that would enable us to give back in our community.

After launching the Little Voice book, we succesfully created the Little Voice Forget Me Not Project, a project that allowed us to use our platform to donate a portion of every book sale to the Alzheimer Society of Canada. To date, Little Voice has raised close to $7,000 dollars in honour of Amanda’s grandmother Teresina Bernardo, and has been recognized by eTALK Canada and Starbucks Canada for our fundraising movement. 

In addition to the Little Voice Forget Me Not Project, Little Voice has worked closely with a number of community initiatives, supporting local schools, charities and not-for-profits … but we wanted to do more.

If we could create a movement and fundraise close to $7,000 dollars, what was stopping us from supporting others within our community to do the same.

Today, Little Voice is pleased to launch our official movement: The Little Voice Ambassador Program that will enable Canadians across Canada, children and adults alike, to start their own movement under one of three platforms: 1) For your school; 2) For your Community; or 3) For your Future.

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By creating a movement under our first platform, teachers and parents can fundraise on behalf of their school. By creating a movement for your community, people can fundraise on behalf of a local charity, cause, individual or group in need. By creating a movement under our last platform, a parent or child can fundraise using the Little Voice Ambassador Program to support a child’s future education with a donation to their Registered Educations Savings Plan (RESP).

Movement Page ButtonsThere is no age limit, no time limit and no cost to join, simply a desire to make a difference in your community, school, or future!

With every movement, Little Voice will donate $5 from every book sale to the Ambassador’s cause. Registered Ambassadors will receive a coupon code that will track sales through our website and enable us to donate back to their movement. In turn, Little Voice continues to donate a portion of every book sale to the Alzheimer Society while supporting many more movements across Canada.

As we launch our movement today, we are very excited to have a number of movements already underway! Visit our Registered Movements page to learn about our first movements with CHEO, Proud to Be Me, the Alzheimer Society of Ottawa and Renfrew County, #RosalinaStrong, the Half Moon Bay Public School and more!

Be sure to catch Little Voice on CTV Ottawa Morning Live this morning at 9:20am, at noon with UpFront Ottawa and this evening from 7:00 to 8:00pm on Twitter, using  the hashtag #wethelittle, and Facebook, on our event page, for a live chat where we will answer all your questions about our movement, our book and our journey. 

A BIG thank you to everyone who has continued to support our message and vision.

By working together, we hope the Little Voice Movement will grow to not only impact our local community here in Ottawa, but also communities across Canada.

If not now, when?

Did you know that 2 years ago, in the month of October, Little Voice was born on a scrap piece of paper? It was tucked away for safekeeping until author Amanda’s own inner voice inspired her to publish her work!

Almost a year later, Little Voice was born on December 2, 2014.

It is incredible to think how far we’ve come in such a short amount of time!

Eight  months later, we returned to the drawing board to expand our audience and bring to you La petite voix. Now, with our story available in English and French, our movement continues to grow and inspire others to listen to their little voice, as Amanda did so long ago.

Within the pages of our book, our story can teach you many things. Our message can encourage you to be proud of who you are; to be strong, courageous and bold; to believe in yourself when all else fails; and to chase your dreams no matter what obstacles stand in the way.

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