What do we mean by family literacy?

A variety of programs and services are given the label of “family literacy”. For the purpose of this scan we included the following:

• Parent involvement – parental involvement in a child’s literacy development is encouraged through joint caregiver-child sessions; this type of program focuses mainly on children 0 to 6.
• Intergenerational – both caregivers and children receive direct literacy instruction; again the age of the child in this type of program is 0 to 6.
• Focus on Primary Caregiver – adults are the primary participants and the focus is on ways in which to develop children’s literacy at home either directly or indirectly; if the child is not yet in the school system, childcare may be provided while caregiver participates in program
• Activities for the General Public – focus is on public awareness, informal participation (e.g., reading tents, ABC Canada’s Family Literacy Day activities)
• Resources – materials (often created by program staff) that support the idea of family literacy are made available (e.g., books for babies)

How is family literacy funded?

Each of the provincial/territorial “snapshots” looks at the how of funding within that province or territory. Historically, in Canada, funding for family literacy has ebbed and flowed at the discretion of governments (federal and provincial/territorial). In the early 1990s, the federal government and some provincial/territorial governments funded family literacy projects as long as the focus was on the adult. For example, in Ontario at that time, the provincial government provided cost-shared funding ^{Footnote 1} for the Family Literacy Interest Group.

This flow of funding for family literacy lasted until the mid 1990s. After that, agencies that wanted to provide family literacy programming did so through their own fund- raising initiatives.

In 2000 the Early Childhood Development Agreement between the federal government and the provinces and territories provided funding for family literacy that focuses on the development of early childhood literacy skills. For example in 2003-04, the provinces and territories received over $500 million from the federal government. This money was earmarked for service delivery improvements in four areas:

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