About Us

We are fortunate to have dedicated volunteers with a wide variety of expertise and experience providing leadership and supporting our work. We are grateful for their commitment.

Marilyn MacKinnon – Chairperson
Zaid Mohammed – Past Chairperson
Jarah Al Dabous
Krista Forte
Jennifer Pawluk
Gabriel Valentini

Beverley Zakaluk, B.A. B.Ed. MEd. Ph.D – Honourary Life Member (2015-2022)

Monica Dinney, Executive Director
Monica has an extensive background working with a variety of non-profit organizations in Winnipeg. Her experience includes program development and management, donor relations, fundraising, community granting, event planning, and working with Boards and volunteers.
She obtained the internationally recognized Certified Fundraising Executive (CFRE) credential in 2006 and holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree from the University of Winnipeg.
Monica is an active community volunteer, and has served on various Boards and committees. She is a member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals and is a past Chair of National Philanthropy Day in Manitoba.
An avid reader with a love of languages, Monica is dedicated to the values and principles of literacy, education and lifelong learning opportunities.

Rhea dela Cruz, Office and Program Administrative Assistant
Rhea holds a degree in Business Management, and has years of experience in office administration including payroll, accounts, database management and publishing programs. Previously she worked for an international private pre-school, supporting teachers and administrators.

Nancy Tovell, Program Coordinator
Nancy has a wide range of experience in facilitating workshops with a focus on sharing strategies, tools and resources to support those working with families and young children. She graduated from the University of Manitoba with a Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) degree and spent several years travelling five continents and collecting a million special memories. Included in these memories are working with early childhood education programs in London, England and creating other spontaneous “language sharing and literacy” sessions from Egypt to South Africa. She enjoys volunteering at her daughters’ schools and their many extracurricular activities.

• Make a donation – in honour of an achievement, to recognize a special occasion or as a memoriam tribute. Tax receipts available for donations of $10 or more.
• Host your own event to raise funds for family literacy. We recognize and appreciate the time and energy involved in organizing a fundraising event, and welcome your ideas and support. Please give us a call to discuss your idea.
• Book club members – help encourage your own love of reading in young children through supporting family literacy programs as your charity of choice.
• Serve as a volunteer Board Member or committee member.
• Volunteer your time in our office, or with a program in the community.

Click here to go to our donations page.

Please contact us if you are interested in learning more about these opportunities. We appreciate your support.

Vision:
All families and their communities experience the joy and benefits of literacy.

Mission:
To develop and deliver early years programs and training to build and support the foundations of literacy and learning.

Values:

Respect

• We honour the strength and knowledge of individuals and communities.
• We believe parents are their children’s first and most important teachers.

Inclusivity

• We build upon the diverse literacy practices of families and communities.

Collaboration

• We actively involve parents, families and community organizations as partners in the development of our programs.
• We build and sustain partnerships and support networks to address literacy issues.

Lifelong Learning

• We recognize that positive early years experiences are critical foundations for creating lifelong learners.
• We inspire families to experience and enjoy learning together through our activities.

Best Practices

• We are committed to ongoing reflection and learning.
• We ensure quality programs through:
  – adaptation and alignment of content with research-based evidence
  – continuous evaluation and feedback

Bookmates is a Manitoba based not-for-profit organization, established in 1984. For over 40 years we have proudly promoted and supported family literacy in communities across the province and beyond in partnership with a wide variety of groups and organizations. We are the only non-profit organization in Manitoba focussed solely on providing family literacy services.

Early Years
Bookmates/Reading Partners was created through the inspiration and vision of Dr. Beverley Zakaluk, professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Manitoba.

Funded by Winnipeg’s Core Area initiative, the project matched volunteers – mainly university students – with children living in the inner city for trips to the library to encourage and support the love of reading and help familiarize families with available community resources.

In 1984, Bookmates/Reading Partners was incorporated as a registered charitable organization

Early programs included Building Language at Story Time (BLAST) in 1984 and Book Bridges in 1990. Supported by the Junior League of Winnipeg, Book Bridges was developed in partnership with the Immigrant Women’s Employment Service and the Women’s Counseling Service.

These programs signaled a shift from children-only programming to an interactive, intergenerational design, increasing parents’ awareness of the importance of reading to and with their children.

Growth and Expansion
Bookmates/Reading Partners’ second decade focused on strengthening and modifying existing programs to meet changing community needs. In partnership with Lord Selkirk School Division, a Family Reading Club was created to provide teacher workshops as well as family programming, with a focus on engaging young readers. A “train the facilitator” model was adopted, where Bookmates staff guides community workers and parents toward the skills and knowledge needed to build family literacy capacity in their communities. This model continues to be a Bookmates’ cornerstone.

In 2000, the provincial government implemented the Healthy Child Manitoba (HCM) Strategy, a network of programs and supports for children, youth and families. Bookmates is a key contributor to the early years portion of the strategy, offering family literacy training across the province in partnership with regional Parent Child Coalitions.

Also that year, Bookmates/Reading Partners officially changed our name to Bookmates and continued our increasing focus on parent-child programming.

One of our programs, Alphabet Soup, was the 2006 recipient of the Dietitians of Canada Regional Award. Developed with the community in partnership with Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, it also received a Sharing the Flame Certificate of Recognition as a recognized program in health and learning for 2009 from the Canadian Council on Learning.

Thanks to talented local writers and illustrators, Bookmates self-published five books between 2006 and 2008. A First Counting Book in Swampy Cree and English; Watch Your Step: A Black and White Book for Babies in English, Ojibwe and Cree; and Kinipan na, in three languages plus phonetics, encourage dual and home-language development. Kookum and Me and Pepere Played the Fiddle are important additions to a culturally appropriate library for preschoolers.

In 2009, Bookmates transitioned to a new, independent space on Erin Street. Previously, the City of Winnipeg generously had provided low cost space, mainly in Winnipeg Public Libraries. In 2024, we moved to 1661 Portage Avenue.

Highlights
Our recent endeavours include continued early literacy program development and new community partnerships to support learning in the early years.

We offer a series of skills development workshops for service providers who work with families and young children to assist them integrate early literacy and learning activities and resources in their programs. The workshops are based on current themes related to family literacy and early childhood development such as active play, connecting with nature, screen time and more.

We were pleased to receive the 2018 Manitoba Child Care Association’s Friends of Child Care Award for our services supporting the work of early childhood educators.

In 2014, we were honoured to be a finalist for the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce Spirit of Winnipeg Awards in the Charity category. These annual awards recognize innovative organizations and businesses for their contributions in making Winnipeg a better place to live.

In 2012, the Very READ-y Project was launched. Over its six-year span, this collaborative family literacy initiative supported the early learning community and families in Winnipeg’s Point Douglas neighbourhood.  With the generous support of The Winnipeg Foundation, we worked to increase school readiness by offering young children and their families an array of focused speech, language and literacy programs and activities.

We subsequently engaged in a similar two-year project in Downtown Winnipeg in from 2018 to 2020, working together with a variety of community partners to address the significant issue of school readiness by offering information, tools and resources for parents, caregivers and early learning practitioners.

Into The Future
We continue to build partnerships with a wide variety of community organizations including family resource centres, libraries, child care centres, school-based early years programs, public health providers and other family serving agencies to build our collective capacity to reach and support more children with the development of foundational learning skills.

In response to diverse community needs, we engage with our partners in ongoing review and renewal of our family literacy programs and training.

We look forward to continuing to support parents as their children’s first teachers, developing new workshops and programs, and promoting the importance of early literacy to fulfill our vision that “all families and their communities experience the joy and benefits of literacy”.