Newsletters

Merry Christmas from all of us

Literacy Links December 2011 
Literacy Alberta www.literacyalberta.ca

Building literacy and essential skills in Alberta through inspiration, innovation and collaboration.

A Word from Janet Lane, Executive Director

Buoyed on by the success of this year's Literacy and Learning Symposium and the AGM, we are all busy with our core projects and getting new ones started. I am very excited about our new initiatives, the new members of our team, and our four new Board members – who are all committed to Literacy Alberta’s (LA) members and our goals.

 November's focus on financial literacy saw us attending events and promoting it on our social media platforms – Twitter and Facebook. Our website has a new look and this is our first e-newsletter since the launch. We will be producing 10 newsletters a year as part of our commitment to share best practices, news and information.

 We now look to 2012 – and the first big event of the year – Family Literacy Day, January 27^th.  We will be working with the families served by our landlord, the Salvation Army, in our own backyard - literally. We are also working on plans for our 2012 Wake Up to Literacy fundraising event. Stay tuned.

While this year had its challenges and more than its share of sorrows, I was inspired by the many successes: not just at Literacy Alberta, but in organizations across the country. We continue to see the movement gathering strength as others join forces with us. We focused on plain language in our Annual Report to demonstrate the wide reach literacy has – and the support it gets and gives to 'sister' initiatives. We also opened discussions with fellow literacy service providers on how we can all serve our clients better – individually and together. These talks continue. As Margaret Wheatley said in her closing comments at the Literacy and Learning Symposium: "Whatever the problem, community is the answer." I so agree. 

2012 will be a year of energy, engagement and enterprising projects – all directed at our mission of 'building literacy and essential skills in Alberta through inspiration, innovation and collaboration'. We head into 2012 with great expectations and confidence. As 2011 ends, I wish you the very best. I do hope you can take time over the holidays to savour the successes achieved in 2011, remember the special moments and people, and share in the pride we can all feel for our communities. 

I look forward to seeing you in 2012.  Please keep in touch – and let us know how we can continue to serve you, and literacy better.
Janet Lane, Executive Director  jlane@literacyalberta.ca

Board Brief by Christine Tortorelli, Chair

I really enjoyed this year’s AGM.  It was very well attended, with excellent reports, discussions and feedback. It is a key event for us, and the people we serve. It is such a valuable time to meet face-to-face and report on our work throughout the year. In 2011, we used our strong base to support new projects and expand our reach. Literacy Alberta's role in enhancing activities throughout the province is healthy – and we are excited about new projects coming under our umbrella. We are in a very strong position going into 2012 to make more progress in improving the support and leadership we offer the literacy community.  

Christine Tortorelli, Board Chair, presents Award of Excellence in the Student category to Isabelle Tapp. 

The Literacy and Learning Symposium was again an event to be proud of, with excellent sessions, many networking opportunities, and representation from around the province and beyond. I would, on behalf of the Board, like to thank all those who worked so hard to develop a program that reached into the many corners of the literacy world we inhabit.

I was proud to be part of the Gala and Awards hosted by CBC's David Gray, with special guests the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta, The Honourable Donald S. Ethell and Her Honour Linda Ethell. Special congratulations to all the nominees and winners. They are a keen reminder of the benefits all our work achieves and the outstanding people we serve. 

In 2012, we will focus on enhancing partnerships, expanding our reach with new projects and engaging with literacy supporters to ensure we continue to provide our excellent services in even better ways.

Michael Raven and I were pleased to be re-elected to the Board, to serve with the current members. And, we welcomed four new Board members.  All of us on the Board are looking forward to their valuable input and insights.

Elected
Mick Lerch is a supply chain professional currently employed by Loblaw Companies Ltd. as Director, Outbound Transport. Mick is heavily involved with ESL learners and workplace literacy.
Donna Taylor is the Literacy Coordinator for Words Work Literacy Society in Athabasca, AB. Donna works with volunteer tutors and runs a family literacy program in the area.
Appointed
Donna Jones works part time for Alberta Health Services.  As both a physician and a student in epidemiology, Donna believes literacy serves an important role in the primary prevention of disease.
Sibylla Lane is the President and owner of Lane Solutions, offering management services to corporate and government agencies.  Sibylla was the VP Finance and CFO for World Skills Calgary in 2009.

Special Tribute to Fay Holt Begg
We were all saddened to lose our Board member, friend, mentor and literacy champion Fay Holt Begg this autumn. Fay passed away November 8.  

She was missed at our Symposium Gala and Awards banquet, where she was awarded the Literacy Alberta Award of Excellence in the Volunteer Category. Janet Lane and I had the blessing and privilege of presenting this award to Fay the week before the Symposium.

Fay was the consummate literacy advocate – working at so many levels to bring about initiatives - with endless energy and enthusiasm. Her imprint on Alberta literacy – organizations, communities and individuals – will remain.  Fay’s obituary

Board details are available on our website.
Christine Tortorelli, Board Chair board@literacyalberta.ca 1- 800-767-3231.

Project Profiles

New Coordinator Training

In November, Literacy Alberta teamed up with the Community Learning Network (CLN) to deliver New Coordinator Training (NCT) in St. Albert. With 23 candidates signed up, the workshops were at capacity.

This cycle of training was formally opened up to include new Volunteer Tutor Adult Literacy (VTAL) program, Community Adult Learning Council (CALC), and Family Literacy (CFL) coordinators. Working with the CLN created the opportunity to run concurrent sessions. Planning is underway to offer this training as a partnership again in spring 2012.

Practitioners and coordinators who attend NCT, also return six months later for a follow-up training opportunity. LA's regional resource persons also participate in NCT as mentors, and then stay on for their own training. Regional leaders from the LA, CLN and CFL continue to find ways to work together across the province providing regional networking and professional development.

Find out more in our Professional Development section online.
Berniece Gowan, Regional Support Project Manager, bgowan@literacyalberta.ca

Taking Shelter With Literacy

Literacy Alberta and the Further Education Society of Alberta (FESA )are moving forward with this innovative Safe Community funded project. Ann Thomas, our project coordinator, has been connecting with shelters to establish sites for this winter and the coming year.

The project has five key components: Literacy Awareness/Literacy Audit; Plain Language training; FESA ‘Parenting after Violence’ curriculum delivery and training; a Legacy Library; and, a professional development opportunity with Dr. Jenny Horsman on the impact of violence on learning. 

The Taking Shelter with Literacy project has created a wonderful opportunity to work with the Alberta Council of Women’s Shelters and other community partners. Find out more on our website.
Berniece Gowan, Regional Support Project Manager, bgowan@literacyalberta.ca

Learning and Violence Project – with Dr. Jenny Horsman

This project is moving into the final phase, with the focus on setting up two pilot sites in colleges or communities to work with the new materials developed specifically for this initiative. Three new Interactive Tools aimed at changing how we learn and/or teach literacy and essential skills are available on the Learning and Violence website.
Berniece Gowan, Regional Support Project Manager, bgowan@literacyalberta.ca

Ready, Set, Drive

We are excited to report that the plain language translation of the Basic Licence Driver’s Handbook is underway. The project team has completed a sample section to demonstrate the new approach. We will meet with Alberta Transportation Safety representatives to provide a project update and get feedback.

We have received many inquiries about the Driver’s Handbook. We will move ahead with the project quickly. The early plain language version will be out in the field for testing by mid-spring. Allowing time for edits, we should have the revised version in your hands before next fall.

If you have thoughts about content, formatting or other considerations for the plain language version, please contact Candice or Ann.
Candice Jackson, PD and Regions, Project Manager cjackson@literacyalberta.ca and Ann Thomas, Project Coordinator, athomas@literacyalberta.ca

Essential Skills and Literacy Practice

This project is building knowledge, expertise and resources in Essential Skills. Several face-to-face 'Introduction to Essential Skills' workshops were held this fall for literacy and learning practitioners.   An online Essential Skills Resource Guide is available free to download from our website. In addition, we have developed a Facilitator’s Guide to introduce literacy tutors to Essential Skills concepts.  This Guide is currently being piloted; the final version will be ready early in 2012.  All volunteer tutor adult literacy programs will receive a complimentary copy of the Facilitator’s Guide.  
Candice Jackson, Director, PD and Regions, cjackson@literacyalberta.ca

Workup! A model for workplace essential skills training

In partnership with Alberta Workforce Essential Skills (AWES), we have trained six experienced facilitators to become Workplace Essential Skills (WES) practitioners.  All are currently providing essential skills training to businesses in their home communities.  The businesses include a hotel, a bank, a casino, an employment agency, and a service company to the oil and gas industry. This project ends in spring 2012. LA and AWES will publish a final report, including a WES Marketing Tool Kit, on their websites after the project ends.
Terri Peters, Project Manager, tpeters@literacyalberta.ca

Integrating Foundational Learning

The Integrating Foundational Learning project has been a great success.  Seven organizations funded by Calgary Learns were trained on how to include literacy and essential skills in their employability and community issues programs.  A final report and the Foundational Learning Checklist will be available on our websites soon.  We would  like to thank Calgary Learns for funding this project.
Terri Peters, Project Manager, tpeters@literacyalberta.ca
 

Literacy and Learning Symposium 2011


 Although the Symposium is behind us, for many the experience is still very fresh.

 

 

 

The Lieutenant Governor of Alberta, the Honourable Donald Ehtell, chats with guests  at the Literacy and Learning Symposium Awards Gala. 

 

Judy Millard, Literacy Coordinator, County of Lethbridge Literacy Program - What a conference!!! I really enjoyed the Keynote speakers and the sessions I attended. My gratitude goes out to all of you who worked so hard to make this a meaningful and motivational Symposium.

Candice Jackson, Symposium Committee member and LA Director, PD and Regions - The 2011 Literacy and Learning Symposium was a great success.  Delegates appreciated the range of professional development sessions, the keynote speakers, networking opportunities (including the opening mixer and White Hat ceremony), and the exciting Gala Awards Banquet.  We were fortunate to have the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta His Honour Donald S. Ethell, and Her Honour Mrs. Ethell as our guests. 

The banquet also featured the presentation of the Literacy Alberta Awards of Excellence.  Congratulations to all nominees, and to the category winners this year:
Literacy Student – Isabelle Tapp
Practitioner – Shirley Shrenk
Organization – Paintearth Community Adult Learning Council
Volunteer – Fay Holt Begg

Literacy Alberta sponsored Symposium bursaries for adult literacy learners and volunteer tutors, as we have done for many years.  Seventeen tutors and eleven adult learners from across the province received bursaries, which covered registration, accommodation and some travel costs. cjackson@literacyalberta.ca

Cindy Messaros, Project Manager - Wow! What an amazing opportunity it was to be a part of the Literacy and Learning Symposium 2011 in Calgary. I attended wearing two hats: one as an LA staff person, and one as a Symposium delegate. Being brand new to LA, I saw firsthand the huge amount of pre-conference planning that went into this being such a tremendous success.  I also helped at the conference with registrations, problem solving and general errand running. It is always fun to be hands-on at this kind of event.

I met the groups of people who are the backbone to literacy training and delivery in Alberta: the practitioners, the volunteers and the coordinators. And, I met many of the learners. It was all so inspiring and energizing. 

As a delegate, I felt equally fortunate to have participated in some top-notch professional development. We are truly fortunate in Alberta to have such high quality learning and networking opportunities through this Symposium. I am applying my learning in all aspects of my work and life.

And, it was also wonderful to have some dedicated time to work with my colleagues. cmessaros@literacyalberta.ca

Symposium images and videos of highlights from Margaret Wheatley’s keynote address and Janet Lane’s closing remarks are live in our new Gallery. 

Give your feedback on Literacy & Learning Symposium 2011

Planning is underway for the Literacy and Learning Symposium 2012. Your feedback can play a key role in helping the planning committee. If you attended LLS 2011, and did not have an opportunity to fill out evaluation, your feedback is still helpful. Go to the evaluation online or visit the Literacy and Learning Symposium site.

Family Literacy Day – January 27, 2012

We are planning our Family Literacy Day initiative, and want to know what others are doing. We will be using our social media – Twitter and Facebook – to keep people posted as plans evolve.  Join others by tweeting about your events using the #FamilyLiteracyDay tag, so we can all follow the discussions on Twitter. 

For the 2012 event, ABC Life Literacy Canada is inviting all Canadians to Take the Learning Journey!  The benefits of dedicating time to read, write, play, exercise, or just talk together on a daily basis can have a big impact on increased literacy levels. They have also created the Journey to Learning Passport as part of the 2012 celebrations. 

Information, resources and copies of the passport are on Family Literacy Day website.

Waking Up to Literacy Breakfasts 2012!

We are busy planning our second annual Waking Up to Literacy Breakfasts fundraising events. Stay tuned to find out when we will be in a city near you. Funds raised support Literacy Alberta projects.

 LearningLinks – On the shelf

LearningLinks Resource Centre's Laura Godfrey will be regularly selecting books from the centre to review. Laura has picked ‘Teaching Adult Literacy: Principles and Practice 2010’, by Nora Hughes and Irene Schwab, Open University Press, as her first choice.

Are you teaching or training to teach literacy to adult learners? Do you want to update and deepen your practice? Then this may be the book for you! The authors offer friendly guidance on how to work with adult learners to develop their literacy skills and practices. Practical suggestions are offered for teaching, planning, and assessment. They also give direction on supporting learners with dyslexia and global learning difficulties.

This book is available to borrow from LearningLinks Resource Centre, Canada's largest collection of resources dedicated to literacy, learning difficulties, and attention issues. LearningLinks is a joint project of Literacy Alberta and the CanLearn Centre/Calgary Learning Centre.

Visit www.learninglinkslibrary.ca for details. Follow us on Facebook (LearningLinks Resource Centre) and Twitter@LLRCLibrary.
Laura Godfrey, Librarian, LearningLinks, lgodfrey@literacyalberta.ca

 SHARE – Changes you should know about

Are you receiving SHARE updates to your email? If it has been quiet lately, it might be that you are still using a literacyalberta.ca email. These email addresses no longer exist as we changed email provider in October.  You will need to add a new email address for to use for SHARE updates.  If you do not have an email address, providers such as Google, Yahoo and Hotmail are just some of the organizations offering free email accounts.

Contact our new SHARE administrator, Adrienne Arthur, and ask for assistance. sharehelp@literacyalberta.ca.
Phone: 1-866-410-5708.  Kate Harrison Whiteside, our communications consultant, will be managing forums. kwhiteside@literacyalberta.ca

These changes took place as Yvonne Stewart, our SHARE architect, has moved to greener pastures at Green Hectares Online. Yvonne not only developed SHARE intranet site, tailored for Alberta’s literacy community, she created a conversation that has connected us from north to south and east to west. Her commitment to and enthusiasm for helping everyone get the most out of SHARE has left us with excellent tool to stay in touch with each other and share ideas, resources and issues. Yvonne will continue to be a SHARE participant. We wish Yvonne the very best.

Communications – Full Circle

Communications at LA is developing more ways to close the circle with our friends, supporters and stakeholders. Our new website, launched this fall, includes regular news updates, the Twitter posts are visible on the home page and an online Shop for membership and goods is open for business. This e-newsletter is part of the circle.

We are embracing Facebook and Twitter as key ways to connect and interact with like-minded people. We are also excited about the activity both platforms have generated to date. They are definitely helping us connect with people, find out what they are doing, cross-promote our organizations, and reply to questions.

We have posted (381) tweets and have (241) followers from around the globe on Twitter.  Our Facebook page has 71 fans, 84 active users and over 2846 post views - and is growing. Here is what is being said by us and about us.

Facebook - Literacy Alberta Posts
It is only three months until Family Literacy Day Jan 27 - 2012. Why not get your Journey to Learning Passport and get started? 133 impressions, 3 Likes, 2 Comments, 1 Share.
Twitter - Literacy Alberta Re-tweet
@VegminLearning Holly Cependa @LiteracyAlberta thanks for the tip . . . just another bit of info we can add to our learner's toolkits! Thanks.

Website Activity

Prior to the launch of our new site, the previous version had 115,500 hits from 8,800 visits in the third quarter. We will have more information on our new site’s activity in the next newsletter.

Social Media Tips
Everyone can benefit from social media tools, whether it is sharing information or gathering tips. Think of it as a live library. Like any other marketing initiative, it needs planning, delivery and follow-up. But, the returns on the energy invested can be very positive.

Use Twitter as a research tool. Tweets contain helpful links on current topics. Use it when writing reports, developing training, or searching for resources.

Become a fan of Facebook pages for leading literacy organizations.  You can save time by getting all their updates in one place.

Visit our Facebook Page – facebook.com/literacyalberta  
Follow us on Twitter - @literacyalberta
If you have any ideas, input or insights into any of our communications activities please contact Kate Whiteside, Communications, kwhiteside@literacyalberta.ca.

Calendar

Holiday Schedule: Literacy Alberta offices will be closed from Friday, December 23, 2011 to January 2, 2012. We re-open January 3rd.

January 27, 2012 – Family Literacy Day

February 1, 2012 – Deadline for nominations for Life of Learning Awards, Calgary Learns

Next Newsletter – January 2012.