Design of the PEFaL project

• practitioner training;
• delivery of programs: sessions for individual families, family literacy program;
• establishment of the common framework on which all family literacy programs are based;
• adaptation and design of the local program from the common framework; and
• development of sessions adapted to the local context.

Format of the PEFaL workshops: The design of a workshop for parents and children can be represented by the! letter H in a horizontal position (see diagram 1). The first part of the workshop includes separate sessions for the parents and the children. The parents use this time to prepare the joint session. The parents then join the children for the second part of the workshop and do an activity with their child while putting into practice what they have learned in the parent group. The third and final part of the workshop provides separate sessions that enable parents and children to go over the experience they had with their child.

Diagram 1: Sequence of a typical session

A typical session : PEFaL

Source: Camilleri (2006).

In Ontario, the model Des livres dans man baluchon, from the Route du Savoir adult training centre in Kingston, corresponds most closely with the model proposed by the PEFaL project.

Duration of the PEFaL workshops - Each program welcomes between eight and twelve families for two meetings a week (morning, afternoon or evening) over a six-week period. One practitioner works with the parent and another with the children.

Participation of fathers in the PEFaL workshops - In accordance with the findings of the Coalition francophone's research and other research, few fathers (3.6%of parents) participated in the PEFaL project. Camilleri et al. note that excluding men from a family literacy program could have a beneficial effect in communities where men are perceived as dominant figures who wield all the power. In such a context, family literacy programs can become informal support groups for the women who participate,