Trails to Literacy: PHASES
Partnering was important from the beginning. The coordinator contacted the chairperson of the Millennium Trail committee and attended a number of their meetings to discuss the possibilities of a joint project between the Millennium Trail and the Trails to Literacy. The proposal was accepted with the stipulation that all work done on or for the Trail was to be approved by their committee.
Initially, our participant group was made up of two literacy participants and one OW community placement. They set up the shop, planned activities, and started learning woodworking skills by building signs, birdhouses, and bird feeders.
Gradually, interest in the project grew and others joined the crew. The first official project was to build signs to mark the access points to the Trail. These signs are beautiful affairs in robin's egg blue, yellow, and white. An outline of a heron is cut out in the background by using a scroll saw. The County Trails committee liked them so well that they adopted the design as a logo for the Trail and the colours as official Trail colours (what a feather in our cap and esteem builder for the group!). The next activity was the creation of forty-nine kilometre markers to place along the trail from Picton to Carrying Place (a great math exercise).
Next, the participants plan to do research activities and develop ways to convey the findings to the people using the Trail. Participants are building samples of birdhouses, bat houses, and bird feeders. They will be applying to the Trails Committee for permission to place them along one section of the Trail close to the shop so we can maintain them. In the future we may even be involved in building rest areas. The possibilities are endless.
In the four months that the program has been operating, there were five participants - one left to return to college and two left for employment.
Participatory Learning - The majority of the learning is participatory, although the group's negotiating and problem-solving skills are put into play by having to gain approval from the County's Trail Committee.