Figure 2. Flow of funding: from government to community to job seeker.

The right-hand side of the diagram illustrates the flow of funds from Indian and Northern Affairs Canada. Aboriginal communities are individually funded through Department of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada. Each community decides where and how to support the social agencies and programs they feel they need in their communities. Communities autonomously dictate the amount of money they spend on literacy programs, and NILA is moving towards advising and supporting these communities to make good decisions regarding literacy and employability training. The relationship between the ECs and the lower-literacy residents in rural and northern regions has been a key element of this major project. With much of the authority for funding at the top of the graphic, NILA and the ECs are finding creative ways to approach the communities and other potential funding partners. This fractured approach to funding has seriously impacted all key stakeholders, most notably the low-literate job hunter in a rural or northern region.