"We are not trained counsellors. Yet when we work so closely with people we are often the first ones the students or tutors turn to. We should have more training in this area or it at least should be recognized how important the role of being a good listener can be."

During my few days in Grande Prairie, I had seen many contented faces come and go at The Reading Network. I kept trying to put my finger on what was special about the environment. I was thinking about that when I asked Carol how she defines success. "I think success is a feeling that you have," she said, sitting back in her chair to think about it. "It's the feeling that 'you can do it', that you can do anything! Success is not the product (like something written on a piece of paper), it's the feeling you get when you accomplish what you set out to do."

The Reading Network has a strong feeling of success about it. Maybe it's human kindness, people helping people, as Abe said, but maybe it's also that this is truly an accepting environment. Whether you're handicapped or from another country or shy because you never finished school, you are welcome and accepted here. Any "outside stigmas" disappear once you walk in the front door. You are one of a group, part of the team and you are safe.

I calked with ANGlE DIXON, a trained second language teacher in French and German, in a little office at the back of The Reading Network. With a young son at home, and another baby due in a couple of months, Angie decided to take a break from teaching but has continued to volunteer at The Reading Network as she has for the past 2 years.

Along with her tutoring commitment, Angie accepted a part-time contract to manage the College's International Literacy Year Activities, a job which has made her more aware of the attitudes society still has about illiteracy. "I've had a lot of contacts with people in the community this past year and I might be wrong but I sense that people are reluctant to get involved."

"When we had the Read-In display up at the mall, I spent a fair bit of time talking to people. There was one guy who was kind of walking by and kind of looking at the brochures so I eventually told him what the display was all about. Right away he said, 'Oh I can read, I know how to read', as if he didn't want to be associated with people who couldn't."

"And I found that sometimes business people didn't want to talk about illiteracy because they didn't want to admit that maybe they had staff members who couldn't read very well. Somehow it seems OK for people to give their time or money for something like a sports event because that's healthy. Unfortunately, there's still a stigma about illiteracy that 'it's not my problem - those people should have worked harder when they had the opportunity'. I ran into that attitude a lot."

Angie balances her frustration with the knowledge that awareness about literacy is greater now than it was. "People are using the word 'literacy' a lot more now," she said, reinforcing what Linda had said the night before. "I recently heard a commercial on TV where Shell was giving away books. They have one line in their ad that says, 'Help promote literacy in Canada'. They would never have used those words a few years ago. And I laugh sometimes because even when I just want to sit down after work and relax with a magazine, I turn to some article on education and all of a sudden theres the word literacy again!'"