The adopted approaches must

• appreciate and value families as principal resources for the children's literacies, and the parent
  as the primary educator of his child;
• appreciate and value all languages and the varieties of language, as they have the same power
  to express a full range of thoughts and emotions;
• ensure that the staff members of the organization have an opportunity to reflect on the
  organization's values and to see how they can integrate and apply them on a daily basis;
• celebrate and value families' social and cultural diversity;
• encourage the active involvement of participants;
• maintain a relationship of equals with the families;
• train the practitioners and volunteers; and
• show appreciation for the literacies of each family at different times.

Finally, guidelines for the development of a program must apply the following fives tenets:

1. Contribute to the creation of a partnership between the child's school, parents and community.
2. Design programs as tools for the development and the fulfilment of each member of the family.
3. Contribute to the development of a family environment that offers each child all options for the
   future.
4. Contribute to keeping the parents' role current in the face of the children's development.
5. Support the development of a positive relationship between parents and children in a
   Francophone cultural context (FCAF,2007,p.14).

The family literacy programs offered by the six centres that participated in the Coalition francophone's
research were trying to give parents the necessary skills so that they can fully assume their role as their
child's primary educator.

The programs encourage the active participation of parents. However, as a general rule, the programs
could be improved, by ensuring that the practitioners receive training both on the fundamentals of literacy
and on family literacy program models. Once multiple literacies become well established and underpin a
literacy program, languages, the varieties of language and the different literacies will be better
appreciated and valued. A family literacy program model like Des livres dans mon baluchon that is founded
on a framework of multiple literacies is a good start.

In the following pages, we present important guidelines for program directors and practitioners as well as
guidelines for evaluating the programs.