6.2 Best practices drawn from the Coalition francophone's research

Many best practices are described in the For My Child reports. They are presented here in point form, and
will later be confirmed and further emiched by other research done in Canada and elsewhere.

• A quality family literacy program is based upon a written mission and clear objectives.
• The model on which the program is based includes an accessible guide that is adaptable to the
  situation of the groups participating in the program.
• Practitioners are trained in the foundations of family literacy and in the particular program
  model their organization is using.
• The chosen program model is tailored to the needs of the target group.
• The program model takes into account the specific needs of Francophones.
• The organization offering the program has close and positive ties with other stakeholders:
  schools, daycare services, social services and child and family services, for example.
• The organization uses various means to recruit families.
• The organization chooses a location that is safe, accessible and adaptable, in order to
  contribute positively to the learning of both parents and children.
• The organization plans on offering the families resources so that learning continues at home
  between workshops (these can be in the form of kits that include books, games and activities,
  or Internet references).
• Evaluation is a key component of the program. It includes measuring the impacts of the
  program on the participating families, evaluating the program itself and evaluating its
  partnerships.

6.3 Information sources

The concept of "best practice" has evolved since 1994, when Taylor undertook to define a set of guidelines
for literacy programs for the International Reading Association (Taylor, 1997). These guidelines served as
the ba1is for at least one Canadian publication on family literacy (Purton, 2000).

In 1997, an international declaration of 126 principles for family literacy practices emerged from the efforts
led by Taylor (1997). The declaration is intended as a guide to the development of practices and policies
that recognize the need to build on the knowledge foundation that each family brings to every learning
situation, such as languages, different forms of literacies and the capacity to solve complex problems.

Finally, the partnership project called QualiFLY deserves mention because it focuses on best practices in
family literacy. As it will end in 2008,the results have not yet been made available.