FAMILY LITERACY IN CANADA
During the funding year 2005-2006, MCL and the Executive Directors of the provincial and territorial coalitions decided that MCL should conduct an environmental scan of the family literacy field. This work was built into MCL’s work plan for 2007-08. The board felt the resulting “map” of family literacy would help MCL to clearly articulate its role in family literacy in Canada.
MCL and its members have a long-standing interest in this issue. MCL hosted the first national Canadian Family Literacy conference in 1994, bringing together Canadian and international pioneers in this area which was just beginning to be talked about under that name. Many of those people have continued to develop knowledge and programs in this evolving field.
As an alliance of the provincial and territorial literacy coalitions, MCL is a national forum, voice and support for the field. The coalitions play a similar role at the provincial/territorial level. Since 1994, the coalitions have steadily increased their involvement in family literacy: conducting research, sharing knowledge through conferences and professional development opportunities, and developing materials. Some have partnered with other family literacy initiatives, with family service organizations, or have developed multi-sectoral initiatives to support intergenerational literacy development.
MCL has also partnered in a multi-year project with the Canadian Association of Family Resource Programs sitting as a member of the advisory committee for the “Weaving Literacy into Family and Community Life” project.
The scan is a necessary first step in working with a broad range of players to develop a national action plan for this issue. The scan attempts to scope out as much as possible:
We examined this in the context of MCL’s strategic planning process and of the community’s long-term efforts to flesh out and advance a national action plan for literacy.