Before we talked more about Challenges, I wanted to know more about Maureen's background. "I actually think it's quite fascinating how I ended up in this field," Maureen laughed. "I've been thinking lately about all the different stepping stones and different paths which have lead me to this point. I have a mentally handicapped sister who taught me a lot as we were growing up, as did raising my own children. I taught elementary school, did my Masters degree specializing in reading and later became a reading specialist for a school board. I was a research assistant for a year with Bill Fagan (a prominent researcher of literacy education at the University of Alberta) then worked as a sessional lecturer in the English Department at the University. As soon as I started doing this job, it just felt right. Everything I've ever done is here - the reading, the research, working with adult students at the University and my experience with my sister,"

"So it was all there but I think most importantly, I came into this job with the strong belief that developmentally disabled adults are able to learn and deserve an opportunity to learn. When I told my friends (very excitedly) about my new job and what I would be doing, some of them looked at my going from teaching University level courses to doing this kind of work as a really puzzling thing to do. Some thought it was a complete waste of time. But I was determined. I believed that this program was necessary and worthwhile and possible."

The past 18 months have been long and exhausting for Maureen as she continues to oversee the project while writing the manual. "I am wary about being too gung-ho in writing the manual," Maureen said compassionately, "because I'm very aware of how overworked literacy coordinators are and how reluctant they are to take on anything more. Supporting 20 student/tutor pairs has been more than a full-time job for me and I have an assistant to help me. When I think about anyone out there who is involved in a fairly big project already and who doesn't have a learning centre environment to work in, I know that it's asking a lot to encourage people to take on something like this that is new and challenging."

"But I'm going ahead because now I have proof, I can show results. I have seen wonderful improvements in most of our students. Now I can prove that developmentally disabled adults can learn. Even without measures of reading growth and writing development, I have seen improvements in areas of self-esteem and self-confidence which is also important."

"At the beginning of the program, some of the students were very quiet, very reserved. (Sometimes it's hard to know if a student really is reserved, or if what you are seeing is simply all there is.) But after working one-to-one with a tutor, some of the students have opened up so much now that you really wonder what has happened to them over the years that has somehow repressed all of that."