In late 1988 John Fisher and Keith Anderson called Mary Norton (who was previously the Provincial Literacy Consultant- Chapter 5) to the Community Programs Branch of the Department of Advanced Education. They wanted Mary's advice. The number of programs being established in the province was growing and Community Programs was beginning to realize that more support needed to be given to the program coordinators.

Mary had been working on Journeyworkers, a tutor training program for coordinators to use to teach volunteers how to tutor adults learning to read and write. The LCA had been operating for a year so it was agreed that Mary would work with the LCA to establish a network of resource people who would introduce literacy coordinators to Journeyworkers and offer support especially in the area of tutor training.

The meeting David Thompson talked about attending in Edmonton at St. Stephen's College in early 1989 (Chapter 10) was the first of many to plan and implement what has become known as the Regional Resource People Project or R2P2. The province was divided into 8 regions with an experienced coordinator assigned to each region as the Resource Person or "RP". The RP's received extensive training as a group then went back to their own regions, holding regional workshops to bring coordinators together for personal and professional support.

The Secretary of State and the Department of Advanced Education have been pleased with the value and success of the R2P2 and are continuing to provide the necessary grant money to sustain the Project. R2P2 could not exist without the financial framework generously provided by the government or the care and concern the coordinators continue to express for each other.

I asked Margot to tell me more about her role as the RP for the Southwestern region. "I was asked to be an RP after I had been on the job for 4 years so I had a pretty good handle on the job. After the RP training I came back here and called all the coordinators in my region together. We'd meet about three times a year in Lethbridge (because it was most central) and we'd have a topic planned like spelling strategies or working with learning disabilities."

"Usually, we'd never get all the subject covered because the group really needed time to talk about all aspects of the job - the frustrations and the good things. They really needed to know that they weren't alone out there. They know that more now but when the Resource Project first starred, they were feeling very alone."

"This is one of the few professions where the majority of people who are hired have absolutely no qualifications. They have many talents but not necessarily specific qualifications. And some of the women in this region have come straight from the kitchen into literacy."

"But I have been amazed at the growth I've seen in the coordinators in this region. We are living in very interesting times for women - a lot of changes and challenges. The people in this region have formed a very caring group. When one coordinator thought she couldn't come because she was nursing her baby, we told her to bring the baby along and we'd help look after it. If someone has a problem we get in there with our elbows going and try to help that person find a solution to the problem that will work for her. Without the sharing of what we have learned from our own experiences, we'd never survive."