Lorri Sauve, M.A. Program Coordinator Project READ Literacy Network Kitchener, Ontario Kim Jensen

1. Let’s Prioritize, Shall We? Exploring a strength-based approach to working with marginalized families in Waterloo Region Lorri Sauve, M.A. Program Coordinator Project READ Literacy Network Kitchener, Ontario Kim Jensen The Literacy Group Kitchener, Ontario

2. Agenda • Essential Skills BINGO - Activity • What are the Essential Skills? • Definitions - Activity • Who are marginalized families? • What are the Indicators of low literacy skills? - Activity • Strategies/tips for working with low literate families - Activity • Putting it all together

3. “If family were a game…” • “it would be a game with many pieces, instruction manual missing, and it would never end…it would have infinite possibilities.” Laura Dick, Lorri Sauve, July 2010 Now it’s your turn. “If family were a game…” Used with permission, Deb Nesbitt-Munroe, Kingston Literacy and Skills

4. Reading Text Document Use Numeracy * Writing Oral Communication Computer Use Thinking Skills * Continuous Learning Working with Others www.hrsdc-grhdc.gc.ca/essentialskills Essential Skills

5. Literacy and the Family • 48% of Canadians fall into the lowest two levels of literacy • Report on IALS, Statistics Canada, 2006 • The literacy development of families impacts every other area of their lives including health, employment, economic status and life chances • Low literacy results in poverty for children and families -Foundations in Family Literacy, 2009

6. Definitions In groups, create definitions on the chart paper provided. Emotionally-centred learning Literacy Intergenerational Family Literacy Programs Strength-based approaches Marginalized families

7. What is Family Literacy? • Project READ defines it as: “parents actively helping themselves and their children to become lifelong learners through a wide variety of activities.”

8. Examples of Marginalized Families • low literate families • single parent • divorced parents • foster parents • aging grandparents • young parents • siblings as guardians • immigrant families • homeless families • same-sex partners • absentee-parent families • ethnically-mixed parents

9. How to Build Positive Relationships: Communicate • Engage families in conversation • Actively listen • Ask questions • Build relationships “No significant learning occurs without a significant relationship.” Connors

10. Anne Ramsay, 2008

11. What are Indicators of Low Literacy?

12. Literacy Statistics • 24% of adults in Waterloo-Wellington are at the lowest level of literacy (Level 1 Statistics Canada) • In Canada, 19% of adults are found in Level 1 Prose and 21.3% in Ontario • Level 3 is considered the level required to fully participate in society • Ontario will see 42% growth in adults in Levels 1 & 2 over the next 30 years • 30% of high school students leave school without a diploma (Ontario Government, May 2008) • Low literate adults are 2.5 times more likely to experience unemployment compared to those at Level 3 +

13. Basis for Family Literacy Programs “If a parent cannot read, there will be no success in asking the parent to read to the child.” - Ruby Payne, A Framework for Understanding Poverty, 2005

14. Basis for programs involving parents and children “Low literacy often appears as a cycle within families. Since the parents don’t read and write well, they don’t carry out the kinds of activities with their young children that foster reading and writing. They don’t have a model passed down by their parents for building literacy skills.” - Marianne Paul, Literacy is a Family Affair, 2002

15. Poverty Statistic • One in eight children in Canada lives in poverty - Campaign 2000, Report on Child Poverty www.campaign2000.ca

16. Impact of Poverty

17. To Bake A Birthday Cake

18. Summary • Literacy awareness is important • Being aware of marginalized people • Never assume – give information, ask • Ensure that anything printed has a lot of white space and pictures that support the text