The Literacy and Homelessness Project
St. Christopher House

Literacy Training for Drop-In, Shelter, and Community Workers
Week I - Summary Notes
March 7, 1996

What is literacy? What is literacy in the context of homelessness?

Facilitator: Michele Kuhlmann, East End Literacy

Small group questions

• How do you decide when someone is literate?
• Is literacy the same for everyone?
• What can't you do when you are not literate?
• What can you do when you are literate?
• How would you define literacy?
• Are some kinds of knowledge more important than others? To whom?
• Why? What are some of the ways that people learn things?

Participant/Group responses

• When you see someone writing, you make an assumption What society defines as literate
• Understanding what you have read - comprehension
• Ability to understand your own context
• Who decides?
• Lots of literacies - for example, we can't understand legal jargon
• There is a higher standard of literacy now due to the economy.
• Instead of grade 8, you need grade 12, and computers are now part of the standard of literacy
• There is a pressure to have it all together before you start a job they won't train you on the job
• Some people go through the mainstream school system without developing solid skills
• Limited literacy limits mobility and choice of opportunity, employment, lifestyle
• Is literacy the same for everyone?-No.
• People who aren't literate can't make sense of their own reality. (Some people disagreed with this statement.)
• There may be different standards/expectations of literacy within one's own culture, community, or even for different genders
• People with low literacy skills are vulnerable to being ripped off, by contracts, payments, legalities. Having low numeracy skills limits your opportunities.