International Literacy Year - awareness and resources

International Literacy Year and the beginning of the last decade of the twentieth century have brought a new visibility to the literacy issue, and new kinds of infrastructure for literacy work.

Publicity from many sources increased massively before and during International Literacy Year. Provinces have made focused efforts in public awareness. Many other organizations have been involved. Some examples: A number of plays have been produced: World Literacy of Canada nationally toured "Reading the Signs;" students and tutors from the program La magie des lettres in Vanier, Ontario, developed "La clef;" "Elephant Shoes" was produced in Alberta, and "Square Eyes" in Manitoba; "Marks on Paper," first produced in the early 1980s, was revived by a group of student actors in British Columbia.⁴⁴ Canada Post designed a commemorative stamp for literacy, whose symbol, a stylized bird composed of characters from many languages, has also been used on lithographs and T-shirts. It also has sponsored TV programs ("Flight for Freedom"/"L'envoi vers la liberté"), a music video, educational video cassettes, and TV and radio spot announcements.

There have also been awareness efforts directed, not to the public, but to social service and community agencies whose clients or members may have limited literacy. The United Way has developed an information kit, on dealing with clients with limited literacy, that is available to 3500 community agencies.⁴⁵ The John Howard society has produced booklets on dealing with clients.⁴⁶

Coalitions of literacy programs and practitioners have been formed in every province for information-sharing and advocacy. There have been a wide variety of exchanges of information regarding programming development. Resource centres have been set up in many provinces. The Canadian Library Association has undertaken a Canadian Literacy Thesaurus project, aimed to facilitate the indexing and retrieval of literacy information. The Association of Canadian Community Colleges operates a National Adult Literacy Database, an on-line information source about literacy programs across the country.

At least a dozen and a half conferences focused on literacy were held in 1990, involving literacy and older people, literacy and vocational training; and programming in corrections, community colleges, libraries, and workplaces. The Circumpolar Conference on Literacy brought participants from northern countries to examine community based and aboriginal language literacy; the Literacy 2000 Conference, held in Vancouver, reviewed literacy developments in several countries; Une Société sans barriéres brought together 3000 people in Montréal to examine issues of literacy and human rights.