SHARON STREDWICK was the coordinator of the LEARN Program in Vermilion. She resigned from her position to take a full- time and higher paying job as a District Home Economist, a job she had held once before.

"As much as I enjoyed working in literacy this is where I most want to be. I left the job of District Home Economist years ago when I was raising my children. I did other part-time jobs, like working in literacy, until this position became available again."

"I've certainly brought back to this job a greater knowledge of literacy skills and needs. I have a lot of contact with people through public speaking and workshops and I use those opportunities to continue to make people aware of the whole idea of literacy."

HELEN MAH was the coordinator for the literacy program in Ponoka for approximately a year and a half. She was also (and still is) the Further Education coordinator. She left her position for personal reasons and admits that the decision to leave was a difficult one.

"I would really like to work in literacy somewhere again. I really miss it. I thought the people were great, just great. They are flexible in their approach to everything and really ingenious in finding solutions to things. They're mellow (not uptight) and not overly concerned with paperwork. They're people who love their work. I miss the people. I really felt apart of a community in literacy and I miss that."

The Further Education Council hosts the grant for the literacy program so Helen continues to keep in touch with the literacy program through her current position. Concerned that there is nowhere for a student to go after tutoring in Ponoka, Helen helped to develop a high school upgrading course and would like to have a General Educational Development (GED) diploma course offered in coordination with the literacy program as well.

After a number of years as the coordinator/supervisor of the LEARN Program, CONNIE MACLEOD decided to go back to the elementary school system to work in the area of prevention. She now works one-on-one with individual students who are experiencing learning difficulties. She also misses her literacy colleagues.

"I miss the people. The people in literacy are special in that they are so dedicated. They are not in it for the money or the power. They're really nice people to know, partly because they're so ordinary. You get to know them on a level different than a professional level. And that stays with you for a long time."

"You know, we used to worry about the turnover rate all the time. We hoped that we could keep people for a longer time in their literacy positions. But maybe we need the turnover, maybe it's not a negative thing. Maybe there's a lot of 'ordinary' people out there to do the job. It simply becomes someone else's turn."

When I asked Connie if what she learned in her literacy work carried over to her new job she said, "I am a significantly better teacher than I was before because of my literacy work. I learned twice as much about reading by working with the literacy programs than I ever did in teacher training. I think that's because I used the skills more in literacy and because it was more intense. And it was all relevant and useful."