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Engaging the Media

graphic: Toolbox Follow-up media release sample

This is an example of a follow-up release from the OLC’s 2003 campaign. You can produce a similar piece that will give media information about the results of the public awareness campaign events in your community. Please modify appropriately and print this on your own letterhead or identifying stationery.

How did you use your literacy skills today?

[Date] – (Timmins, ON) – Over 1,800 Timmins citizens have increased their understanding of how they use literacy skills every day. That was the number of people who returned bookmarks during the “What did you learn today? … Literacy touches everything!” public awareness campaign which ran in this city last week.

The “What did you learn today?” campaign, a pilot project run in partnership with the Ontario Literacy Coalition (OLC), encouraged people to learn something about literacy, teach someone something about literacy, and care enough to tell somebody about a literacy program.

The Timmins public awareness campaign was successful in promoting literacy, according to public awareness campaign spokesperson Sheila Marshall. “We had 1,818 bookmarks returned from boxes around the city, and twelve partner organizations ran successful events with hundreds of participants. We know we reached a lot of people,” said Ms Marshall, Executive Director of the Timmins Learning Centre. The bookmarks asked people to identify how they had used their literacy skills that day.

“Someone who has low literacy skills has trouble reading street signs, making change in restaurants, or writing a job application,” Marshall continued. “In Timmins, we have excellent programs to help, programs that change people’s lives. It’s never too late to learn.”

The Ontario Literacy Coalition is a provincial organization that supports all levels of literacy in Ontario. The OLC is made up of literacy programs and networks, individuals, and other organizations that are interested in literacy. More information is available on the OLC website: www.on.literacy.ca.

The Ontario Literacy Coalition and the Timmins Learning Centre gratefully acknowledge the funders of this public awareness campaign: Human Resources Development Canada, National Literacy Secretariat and Ontario Ministry of Training Colleges and Universities.

The Timmins Learning Centre is located at 94 Pine Street South. For more information, contact Sheila Marshall at 705-268-8900, or e-mail learn@ntl.sympatico.ca.