Issuu

2026

Impact Report

Contact Story Planet 986 Bathurst Street Toronto, ON M5R 3G6 Mailing address: 846 Palmerston Avenue Toronto, ON M6G 2S1 Lizzie Haines, Executive Director liz@storyplanet.ca 416-531-9427

Cover art by Sheena MacDonald Charity number 827252057RR0001

STORY PLANET IMPACT REPORT 2026

Dear Friends, Wow, what a wonderful year Story Planet has had! I am so grateful for the young voices we’ve heard, our amazing team and board, the dedicated teachers who welcomed us, and all of our wonderful supporters and partners. We served more than 800 young people from Grades 2 through 12 in schools and community settings and printed hundreds of books. Our students’ work was also featured in McSweeney’s How Can We Make This World Worth Knowing?, a global anthology of stories from international writing centres. We learned from the joyful Jana Leggett, an inspiring speech-language pathologist helping us bring more rigour to how we teach literacy skills. The results are already encouraging, with kids showing a real upswing in language learning. What I am personally most excited about is our new Youth Ambassadors program. It represents an important shift: young people aren’t just participants in Story Planet— they are helping shape it. Our nine Youth Ambassadors advise us, share their perspectives, and help us think about what Story Planet can become. Two have already joined our summer program as CITs, supporting the next generation of young writers. We are so grateful to all of our partners and supporters. Together, we’re growing Story Planet’s impact and reaching more young people whose voices deserve to be nurtured and heard.

Lizzie Haines Executive Director

Our first meeting with the new Youth Ambassadors, February 2026

Our Mission Story Planet is dedicated to igniting the voices of young people in Toronto’s equitydeserving communities. Our creative writing programs inspire children to imagine, write, and share their unique stories, fostering literacy, confidence, and a strong sense of self-worth. We stand at the vibrant crossroads of the arts, social justice, and education.

2026 Numbers Students Reached

813

Schools Engaged School Workshops

Books Published Community Workshops

This year, we expanded our reach to six new schools, connecting even more students facing economic, social, and systemic barriers with meaningful arts experiences. As our partnerships grew, so did our impact, culminating in a record-breaking spring running programs nearly every day, with a focus on communities in North York and Scarborough.

Best of 2026 Campers proudly shared their work with family and other attendees at our end-of-camp Comic Con (left)—one of many proud moments from our free Regent Park summer camps.

We also welcomed back two former Story Planet students (below) as paid Counsellors in Training, a proud moment! We got to know wonderful interns from social work, education, and writing programs at Sheridan, Humber, TMU, and York (above) who strengthened our programs while gaining hands-on experience in community-based programming.

We were thrilled to see the work of Story Planet students included in this McSweeney’s publication (right) featuring writing by young people from around the world.

An enhanced curriculum using more evidence-based literacy tools, such as sentence starters and word banks, boosted engagement and learning (right), with measurable improvements in writing skills.

STORY PLANET IMPACT REPORT 2026

We were proud to be part of the City of Toronto’s Cultural Hotspot KGO launch at Scarborough Town Centre (left), connecting with fellow organizations as we started a project for students to create picture books for younger children in their community. We worked with 22 new teachers across 6 new schools, creating more opportunities (above) to make writing joyful, accessible, and meaningful for all learners.

Book deliveries were always a highlight of the year—there’s nothing like the excitement of seeing students receive books featuring their own words and art (right).

Two of our Youth Ambassadors sat on a panel in a U of T Literary Citizenship course (left). The professor said, “I was greatly impressed. Their thoughtful, articulate reflections were valuable contributions to the discussion ... They will go far with such skills!”

Our after-school program at The Children’s Book Bank Jane and Finch at Yorkgate Mall (above) marked the beginning of a wonderful partnership in a joyful, inspiring space built around books, literacy, and community.

Programming

Above Left: Programs emphasize sharing, feedback, experimentation, turning the writing process into a creative, collaborative experience. Above Right: A special program with a STEM class used 3-D creations as inspiration for story writing. Left: In WorldMaker, students create a new world together, then draw what they imagine seeing through windows.

School Programs We delivered 70 in-school workshops to 700 students, and we expanded into six new schools—all while laying the groundwork to double the number of programs we deliver over the next three years. We integrated more evidence-informed approaches to teaching writing into our curriculum while staying true to the creativity, play, and imagination at the heart of Story Planet. As always, an arts-based approach gave students exciting new pathways into writing. TDSB speech-language pathologist and literacy expert Jana Leggett says, “Story Planet encourages and facilitates these critical learning experiences by placing talk, play, creativity, and storytelling at the centre of their programs.”

Book Publishing Thanks to a growing intern program, we streamlined our publishing process, putting class anthologies into students’ hands more quickly. These beautifully designed books, with covers illustrated by the artist-facilitators they’ve learned from in the classroom, give students something tangible to celebrate and proudly share with family and friends. Below are some of the titles we published this year.

Comic Avenue By participants in our ComicMaker summer camp CLICK FOR EBOOK

A Traveller’s Guide to Ms. Boakye and the Cool Kids’ World By students in our WorldMaker program CLICK FOR EBOOK

Vampire High By students in our Story Maker workshop CLICK FOR EBOOK

New Initiatives “Story Planet programs left a lasting impact on my life. I want to be able to give that experience back to children to help them unlock their own creativity, just as I was encouraged to do.” –Tashrifa, Youth Ambassador, University of Toronto student

Launching Our Youth Ambassadors Program Nine former Story Planet students (above) serve as Youth Ambassadors, helping shape programming and ensuring youth voices inform our work. Two YAs also joined a University of Toronto education panel, gaining valuable leadership experience.

New Program Partnerships Story Planet’s zine-making program reached youth in new spaces: teens at Frontlines, a community youth organization (right), and students at Urban Squash Toronto. We’re excited to build on these new partnerships and bring more creative programming to both organizations in the year ahead.

STORY PLANET IMPACT REPORT 2026

Partnering with The Children’s Book Bank Our after-school program brought comics, creativity, and storytelling to young people at The Children’s Book Bank Jane and Finch at Yorkgate Mall (left). This fall, we’re building on the partnership with a new teen program with plans to expand to Regent Park and Scarborough locations.

Joining Youth Writing Centres Across Canada Six youth writing centres from Victoria to Halifax (below) are joining forces with Story Planet to connect young writers across Canada through mentorship, collaboration, and publishing opportunities.

Impact

Program Evaluations This year, young writers across every Story Planet program had fun, strengthened their writing skills, and gained confidence in their ideas. We worked with Logical Outcomes to strengthen our evaluations for students, as well as teachers and facilitators, helping us better measure the outcomes we aim to achieve.

Student Feedback 504 total responses Yes

Kind of

I had fun creating and writing in this program.

78%

20%

I learned something about creating stories and characters.

69%

27%

This program made me feel good about my ideas and imagination.

72%

24%

This program inspired me to create more stories in the future.

55%

33%

12%

“It’s really fun. You can give the characters power and clothing and even donkey ears.” –Jeric, Grade 4

“We had so much fun with making our own book. I wish you guys can stay at our school for a day.”

“The best workshop ever.” –Kira, Grade 3

–Kaddy, Grade 6

STORY PLANET IMPACT REPORT 2026

Teacher Feedback 21 total responses Observed Student Outcomes Engagement in learning

100% positive

Confidence in writing/expression

100% positive

Creativity/interest in writing

100% positive

“My students were shy for the first 5 minutes until they realized that this team was excited and happy to hear every suggestion and idea. They couldn't stop sharing their ideas at the end.” –Ms. Kim

“It was great to have so much support for ELL students and non-writing students. They were able to communicate their ideas and participate.” –Ms. Wells

STORY PLANET IMPACT REPORT 2026

Financials The below financial information for our fiscal year ending June 30, 2026 will be audited in November 2026.

Income

Source

Total: $348,194

Amount

% of Total

Grants

$200,891

53%

Government Funding

$122,331

33%

Donations

$31,731

Social Enterprise

$20,821

Interest & Other

$167

<1%

Expenses