Manitoba is fortunate in that an endowment fund was created in 2003. The purpose of the Literacy for Life Endowment Fund is to support family literacy initiatives across the province. The provincial coalition, Literacy Partners of Manitoba (LPM), played a key role in the development of the fund and the Executive Director of LPM sits on the fund’s grants selection committee.
How is family literacy funded in Manitoba?
Since 2003, the Literacy for Life Endowment Fund has awarded over 80 grants totalling just under $250,000. Across the province, the grants support a variety of family literacy initiatives.
Family literacy initiatives are also funded through the Canwest Global Raise-a-Reader campaign. Working in partnership with Canwest and the Winnipeg Free Press, LPM has helped to distribute over $50,000. A grant application process is used to allocate funds to successful applicants.
In general, however, funding for family literacy comes from the Adult Learning and Literacy program of the Ministry of Advanced Education and Literacy. The Ministry identifies eligibility criteria for family literacy funding and notes that family literacy programs must “address the literacy needs of adult caregivers, as well as well as those of children.”
Since 2005, Manitoba’s Adult Learning and Literacy Program has partnered with the literacy network in Saskatchewan to deliver Train the Trainers Foundational Training for literacy practitioners and others working in Manitoba family literacy programs or providing family literacy services. Training specifically for family literacy practitioners has not yet been mandated. Footnote 9
Healthy Child Manitoba focuses on the “well-being of children, families and communities”. Funding is provided to community organizations that focus on a parent- child centred approach. Programs using this approach provide support and education to families with young children (infancy through to preschool). For Healthy Child Manitoba, family literacy activities “support the learning success of children through opportunities to improve family literacy and participate in quality early childhood experiences. (e.g., creative play and recreation programs, reading, writing and storytelling activities, parent-child drop-in programs and lending libraries.)
Return to note 9 It is interesting to note that Manitoba is the only province that provides government-mandated practitioner training for people working in adult literacy programs. It is also the only province in which the government mandates that “instructors receive three hours of paid preparation time for every ten hours of instruction.”