2013 - 2022
Follow our inspirational journey through 2013 - 2022
2013
STL’s Grace Han created and managed our Cerebral Palsy Project, partnering with the Ontario Federation of Cerebral Palsy to offer specialized laptops for individuals with disabilities.
Our volunteers delivered 438 computers, with donations going to the Mamow Sha-way-gi-kay-win: North South Partnership for Children (65), Pathways to Education Pinecrest (57), and individual donations to 35 recipients across the Greater Toronto Area.
STL partnered with IBM, the Black IBM Networking Group (BING) and the Michael Pinball Clemons Foundation (MPCF) to donate 142 laptops to youth participating in a week-long leadership & technology summer camp. MPCF also funded 12 laptops for Youth in Motion.
We partnered with Softchoice Cares to donate 111 laptops to Pathways to Education Regent Park, and with Ernst and Young to donate 16 laptops to Pathways to Education Rexdale.
STL participated in the annual Randstad Charity Auction, the IBM Charity Fair and celebrated our 10th Anniversary!
2014
The CB Powell Foundation, the Trinity Support Foundation and STL partnered to donate 35 laptops to youth participating in YWCA’s JUMP program in Scarborough, a support program for women and girls 13 years or older who are new to Canada. This program helps newcomers explore career options, build skills, search for jobs and integrate into Canadian society.
Our volunteers delivered 174 laptops across the Greater Toronto Area with donations going to YWCA Jump Etobicoke (28), Big Brothers Big Sisters of Peel (20), Pathways to Education Regent Park (8), and 21 individual laptops delivered with a SKETCH program participant receiving our 4000th laptop donation!
Michael “Pinball” Clemons Foundation and STL partnered to donate 20 laptops to Yonge Street Mission. SoftChoice and STL partnered to donate 9 laptops to SKETCH and the CIO Association of Canada, SoftChoice and STL partnered to donate 33 laptops to Pathways to Education Scarborough Village.
STL participated in the FMCT 10th annual Run for Hope, Compugen's Green4Good celebration, Mozilla’s Hive workshop, the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) Greater Toronto Chapter Philanthropy Awards, Randstad Canada's annual charity auction, TELUS's 3rd annual Celebration of Giving, IBM's CASCON’s #Hackathon, the TELUS charity fair, and the CIO Association Peer Forum!
2015
Long term STL supporters, the Fletchers Meadows Cross Trainers held their annual “Run4Hope” to benefit the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Peel, raising funds to donate 15 laptops.
STL partnered with Ernst and Young to donate 51 laptops to Pathways to Education Regent Park and with CIT Canada/Compugen for an additional 17 laptops. A partnership with Softchoice resulted in 18 laptop donations to Pathways to Education Hamilton.
STL honoured the contribution of board member Terry Powers. In his decade long role as Director and Board Chair, Terry was an insightful mentor during our early years and he forever changed the course of STL from a fledgling grassroots organization into a fully staffed national organization. Terry and his amazing team at CNC Global/Sapphire Technologies/Randstad Canada believed in us and helped us change the lives of nearly 4000 youth across Canada.
Having joined STL in 2007, Caroline McIntosh stepped into the role of Executive Director. Equinix opened a new office in Toronto and donated $20,000 to STL in honour of their grand opening. Rema Tavares and Grace Han attended the Queen’s University Conference on Philanthropy.
2016
STL and the Fletcher’s Meadows Cross Trainers “Run4Hope” delivered 13 laptops to Big Brothers Big Sisters of Peel.
We increased the impact of our service and began hosting technology camps with STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) clubs and youth organizations.
We began working with hEr VOLUTION during its first year of operations. This amazing organization, founded by Doina Oncel, creates opportunities for the next generation of women in STEM, connecting them with leaders in the industry for career support. We attended their panel and gave laptops to their program graduates.
We provided 19 laptops to Syrian refugees and hosted a tech camp for them to quickly get them up and running on their new devices.
We delivered 40 laptops to the Rexdale Community Hub STEM Club and partnered with them to deliver our STL Tech Camp. During our camp, we passed the 4,000 laptops delivered marker!
2017
Sky’s the Limit held technology camps in Regent Park with guest speakers covering such topics as cyber bullying, internet safety and navigation, video game development and coding, laptop repair and maintenance, social media and branding, program development, website design and development, and post secondary education and scholarship options. Each participant went home with a laptop, thanks to Ernst and Young who partnered with us to provide 90 laptops to Pathways to Education Regent Park and 20 laptops to Pathways to Education Scarborough Village. We celebrated a milestone in our partnership with Ernst and Young when they donated the 1,000th laptop to us in support of our youth recipients enrolled in Pathways to Education Canada! These laptops enabled their recipients to access digital literacy programs, tech camps, homework clubs, and more.
While continuing to increase the impact of our service by hosting STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math), we also began supporting our community partner organizations that began running their own, such hEr VOLUTION’s March Break camp where participants learned valuable tech skills for employability such as; business planning, marketing, financial planning, how to develop a crowdfunding campaign, coding, online marketing, and public speaking. Each participant also went home with a laptop.
We continued our ongoing support of the Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Peel with a donation of 12 laptops funded by the Fletcher’s Meadows Cross Trainer’s Annual Run4Hope.
2018
STL partnered with Ernst & Young to provide 40 laptops for graduates of Pathways to Education Regent Park's Digital Literacy program. This program aims to bridge the digital divide by providing coding workshops, support and STEM clubs. IBM donated 50 laptop bags to the participants and STL Board Member, Lance McIntosh, led workshops on career development.
We partnered with the Fletcher’s Meadows Cross Trainer’s Run4Hope to provide 12 laptops to Big Brothers Big Sisters of Peel.
STL took a brief hiatus during our Executive Director, Caroline McIntosh’s maternity leave, and our involved Board of Directors stepped in to oversee pre-arranged deliveries and workshops.
We received a HIVE grant from Mozilla for $5000 and our final payment of a $46,200 grant from TD Canada which began in 2016.
STL Founder, Lara Tavares, was honored to be a chosen nominee for the 26th annual RBC Canadian Women Entrepreneur Awards in the “Social Change Award” category. As Canada’s premier national awards program for more than three decades, the awards recognize and celebrate the strides of Canada’s most accomplished, influential, and impactful women, elevating this group’s important contributions – from economic growth to social change across sectors and industries.
While continuing to increase the impact of our service by hosting STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math), we also began supporting our community partner organizations that began running their own, such hEr VOLUTION’s March Break camp where participants learned valuable tech skills for employability such as; business planning, marketing, financial planning, how to develop a crowdfunding campaign, coding, online marketing, and public speaking. Each participant also went home with a laptop.
We continued our ongoing support of the Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Peel with a donation of 12 laptops funded by the Fletcher’s Meadows Cross Trainer’s Annual Run4Hope.
2019
STL delivered 46 laptops to hEr Volution. hEr Volution’s inaugural GO!stem program which was recognized by the Mayor of the City of Toronto and, the week in which the program was held, was recognized as the GO!stem Week. It was also the spark behind the STEMing UP Program. STL provided laptops to graduates of both programs, as well as some engineering and space camp grads.
We delivered 95 laptops to Pathways to Education Regent Park’s Digital Literacy Program graduates to support their mission to break the cycle of poverty through education.
2020
With the onset of the COVID 19 pandemic, Ontario’s Ministry of Education launched “Learn at Home” on March 20, 2020. This new online portal provided resources that allowed Kindergarten through Grade 12 students to continue learning while schools were closed. Post-secondary education also made a move to online learning, with lectures being given virtually. The COVID-19 pandemic shone a light on an already fractured system. The government asked families to stay home and 'pivot to online learning', which was a large ask for those without the necessary tools for online educational success - a computer.
STL was a designated COVID-19 essential business in Ontario (Health care and social services #44 nonprofit organizations that support the provision of food, shelter, safety or protection, and/or social services and other necessities of life to economically disadvantaged and other vulnerable individuals).
With our youth in Ontario all learning online, getting laptops into the hands of the youth who needed them was more important than ever. We mobilized to coordinate the delivery of laptops, and, thanks to generous donations to our COVID-19 Relief Campaign, we were able to deliver 259 laptops to youth at the Rexdale Community Hub and Pathways to Education Canada’s Regent Park youth.
These are laptops that not only benefited the youth participating in online learning, but empowered and uplifted entire households and communities through giving access to online job applications, online housing applications, online government grants for the pandemic, online mental health resources, and most importantly allowed people connection to their community in a time when it mattered the most.
2021
Laptop deliveries continued during the COVID-19 pandemic with socially distanced deliveries.
We distributed 164 laptops across the Greater Toronto Area to hEr Volution’s “Empowering Women Through STEM” program graduates (50), Pathways to Education Regent Park(40), The Good Guides (40), the John Howard Society of Toronto, a non-profit committed to providing and developing programs that reduce the social. Economic and personal costs of crime (10) and HomesFirst Families (4) for people displaced by the COVID-19 pandemic and currently experiencing homelessness.
STL Founder, Lara Tavares returned to her hometown, Ottawa, to deliver a total of 20 laptops to Gwen Madiba, the founder of Equal Chance, and current STL Board Advisor.
We joined the David Suzuki Foundation Future Ground Network, a hub of groups taking action in their communities to secure healthier, more viable futures in the areas of climate justice, biodiversity, waste reduction and sustainable systems.
STL was featured in BBK Network’s article “Canadian Organizations Doing Their Part To Bridge The DIgital Divide”, and was featured in CTV Toronto’s “Things To Know” episode that aired on September 25th, 2021.
Lara Tavares was featured in Anna Keenan’s Revealing 2020, and was featured in a CBC Canada News story about the role women play in climate change in Canada that aired on November 11th, 2011.
2022
Laptop deliveries continued during the COVID-19 pandemic with socially distanced deliveries.
We distributed 195 laptops across the Greater Toronto Area to Pathways to Education Canada Regent Park (75), Rexdale (40), Scaborough Village for their Tech Challenge (20), Equal Chance for Ukranian refugees fleeing the war (35), Yonge Street Mission to support their goal of ending chronic poverty in a generation (15) and Girls Night In in support of their mentoring program (10).
Lara Tavares was featured in Voyage STL, and Canvas Rebel’s “A Tale of Two Need” compilation featuring entrepreneurs and creatives telling stories behind some of the risks they’ve taken.
LANd Acknowledgement
Sky’s the Limit Youth Organization, a non-Indigenous organization, is committed to ensuring that all youth have access to technology and the opportunity to expand and heighten their knowledge and skills. We acknowledge our role as settlers in this land on Turtle Island. We are grateful to be able to live and work on the traditional territory of many nations including the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, the Anishinaabeg, the Haudenosaunee Confederacy and the Wendat Peoples. We recognize the enduring presence of all First Nations, Métis and the Inuit peoples. We recognize the injustices of colonization and how we, as settlers, have directly benefitted from a colonial culture that has overseen the genocide, systematic oppression, and exploitation of Indigenous peoples. We commit to working toward safe, inclusive, just, equitable and healthy communities for all.