Women's Group The Saint John Learning Exchange Saint John, New Brunswick

The Saint John Learning Exchange is a rare example of an intensive, community-based program in New Brunswick. Like the rest of the province, the city of 90,000 also has a volunteer Laubach Literacy Council and college adult basic education classes. The Learning Exchange mandate is to assist adults and youth to achieve literacy and other skills individually tailored to their training, employment, and life needs.

Opened in 1984, the Learning Exchange offered five different programs at the time of the research. The CORE program, which focuses on adult literacy, includes the Community Academic Services classroom funded by the New Brunswick government and private business. The CORE has fifty participants. Three full-time animators work with small groups, offering both full-time and part-time learner-centred instruction. Another five animators work in the Occupational Knowledge (OK) program. Here, thirty young adults, aged 18 to 24, focus on work-related reading, writing and math skills, and basic computer literacy.

They gain experience of different types of work through job exposures and a high number are successful in securing permanent work. Recently two classes for adults over 24 were added to the OK program. Learnex, an adult-oriented program with a staff of two, concentrates on workplace literacy and rewriting services.

Two other programs focus on school children. Two former Learning Exchange students work in the Stay In School program, visiting schools in the area to talk with students who want to continue their education but for a variety of reasons are feeling discouraged. The Homework School operates from 4 until 7 p.m. four days a week. Three coaches are available for students in grades 6 to 9 who use the community space to study and get help with their homework.

There are also two full-time counsellors and four administrative staff who work out of the store-front operation in downtown Saint John. The program shares its city-owned three-story building with the City's craft program, the New Brunswick Association for the Deaf, a job finding club, and a seniors aid agency.