Our purpose as a community in our world of rapid change is to reconnect people with the Ocean. We need to understand its role and impact on our lives, and this can be achieved through Ocean Literacy. Since 2021, Amiguitos del Océano (FADO), a grassroot non-profit organization, has been working with underserved coastal communities in mainland Ecuador. Our pilot model, located in Ayangue (province of Santa Elena-Ecuador), aimed to achieve community development based on Ocean education, management, and sustainable use of resources. Over the past four years, we have now scaled this pilot into a full program that now reaches 10 additional communities, six in Santa Elena and four in Guayas. We address the conservation of marine-coastal ecosystems through integrated personal, sectoral and community action. The program has several projects that holistically co-construct Ocean knowledge and relationships through educational, experiential, and experimental processes with different groups ranging from children to youth to adults. Our signature methodology, Explore, Feel, Reconnect and Act (ESRA), is based on the power of personal action on environmental problems, reconnecting us with the bond we have with water. ESRA encourages reflection and critical thinking; emotions play an important role and participants are the protagonists. Metrics have been developed for each ESRA phase in every sector we serve, allowing us to generate primary data on the behavioral changes and improvement of practices among beneficiaries, demonstrating how Ocean Literacy functions as a tool for conservation and preservation.