The Literacy and Homelessness Project's Literacy Training Course for Shelter and Drop-in Workers

This section provides a training course curriculum from a literacy tutor training course designed especially for shelter, drop-in, and community workers.

Training Course Overview

What do a drop-in for women, Seaton House men's hostel, and an Etobicoke youth shelter all have in common? A keen interest in literacy! Staff and volunteers from these - and twelve other - agencies were active participants in the Literacy Training for Shelter, Drop-In, and Community Workers. Over a three week period in March, 1996, they came together at St. Christopher House in Toronto to learn about literacy issues, tutoring, and community resources. They also explored different ways of doing literacy work with transient people. Some of the participants hope to do literacy work with their clients. Others will look to existing community literacy programs for support. The goal of the training, coordinated by the Literacy and Homelessness Project, was to increase knowledge of literacy issues and community resources among programs that work with homeless people.

The training was jointly facilitated by literacy workers from many different programs, including Street Haven, East End Literacy, Beat the Street, The First Nations Adult Education Project, St. Christopher House Adult Literacy Program, and the Toronto Board of Education. We think that this was the first co-operative literacy training ever held in Toronto! This approach promoted personal contact between many different shelter and literacy workers. It also brought a diversity of approaches and a wealth of energy to the training.

The training curriculum was loosely based on a standard community literacy tutor training, but several themes were expanded or added. For example, participants looked at how they would adapt the language experience approach to the needs of residents in a men's hostel. They learned about the effects of medication and drugs on learning. And they


Back Contents Next