I loved my literacy work. I volunteered as a tutor, became a member of the Boards of the Literacy Coordinators of Alberta and the Alberta Association for Adult Literacy and later the manager of the LCA's Regional Resource People Project. My different involvements in literacy took me to all corners of the province and introduced me to the most resourceful, energetic, passionate and down-to-earth people I had ever met. I spent wonderful times meeting with friends and co-workers, sharing stories, ideas and hopes about our work in literacy. The stories I heard were sometimes sad and painful, often wonderfully funny but always real and always memorable. Many times I thought what a shame it was that these stories were not being written down. I was saddened to think that as the literacy field continued to change and grow, the pioneers and their trials and triumphs might be forgotten.

In 1990, International Literacy Year, I was aware that there was additional grant money available from the federal and provincial governments for special literacy initiatives. Since I had mentally gathered so many stories I decided to write a proposal to the government requesting enough funding to be able to collect and document the thoughts and experiences of community literacy workers and subsequently some of the history of the grassroots literacy movement in Alberta.

In my proposal I stated: "The government of Alberta has dedicated great amounts of time and money to the field of adult literacy. Alberta is recognized as a leader for its networking. statistical research and commitment to literacy work. The growth and development of the grassroots community based volunteer tutor literacy projects as an example has been nothing short of incredible. The rise to success has been a fast and exciting one. Unfortunately little time has been dedicated to the chronicling of this phenomenon and we are now in danger of loosing an important part of our literacy heritage." I went on to point out that without the people in the field there could not have been a "rise to success" in literacy work in Alberta. It was my hope that this project would provide the much needed opportunity for people working in the field to be heard, recognized and understood.

John Fisher and Keith Anderson from Alberta Advanced Education and Ted Norris from the Secretary of State (now Multiculturalism and Citizenship) championed the idea for Opening Doors and were successful in convincing the decision makers in Ottawa to fund the project.

I resigned from my position as Manager of the Regional Resource People Project, set up an office and started to spread the word about my plans for Opening Doors. From the fall of 1990 to the fall of 1991 I travelled over 7000 km by car, airplane and bus to visit 42 communities in Alberta. I conducted 88 interviews with volunteer and paid tutors, literacy coordinators, literacy classroom instructors and some administrators. The interviews were informal; they were simply conversations which took place in people's homes and offices, in hotel rooms, in cars and on the telephone. I met the families of literacy workers, sharing meals and stories with them at their kitchen tables. I visited places I didn't even know existed and saw miles and miles of Alberta countryside.

The following pages are a snapshot of all that I saw and all that I heard - where the community literacy programs are and how the literacy workers in Alberta think and feel about their work and each other. A number of years ago, when the idea for Opening Doors was just beginning to take hold, I called John Fisher to talk to him about it. He said, "You know, I wish I had the time to be able to visit more programs and talk to the people in the field. It would be great to sit around their kitchen tables with them as you have." I told John right then that if I had the opportunity to write this book, I would try to bring the kitchen table to him so that he could "visit" with literacy workers from all around the province as if he were actually in Cold Lake or High Level or Pincher Creek.