Women's Group Toronto ALFA Centre Toronto, Ontario

The Toronto Adult Literacy for Action (ALFA) Centre is an independent community-based program with a mandate to help adults upgrade their reading, writing, and numeracy skills. In addition, ALFA addresses other needs such as possibilities for job training programs and providing referrals to other agencies. ALFA secures its funding from a variety of public and private sources.

The program, located in a community centre in the north-west part of the City of Toronto, began in 1985. Census information at that time indicated a need for a literacy program in this area of Toronto. Supported by church organizations, a group of educators from outside the community organized and sponsored the program. Currently ALFA's board of directors is made up entirely of students and tutors, along with one staff member.

ALFA students are primarily of Afro-Caribbean background. There are a few special needs students. All ALFA students speak English. The majority are 30 to 40 years old. Approximately sixty percent are male, forty percent are female, and most have children.

The staff, who hold four full-time and one part-time positions, operates as a collective. They organize, train, and oversee the work of sixty volunteer tutors who are primarily white middle-class women. All students in the program meet once a week with a tutor. Some students also participate in drop-ins or small groups for additional learning time.

Involvement in the CCLOW research project

Tannis Atkinson, a staff member, was interviewed in phase one. After reading the summary of the first phase, Discovering the strength.of our voices. the staff collective decided they wanted to participate in the research. The program was in the midst of strategic planning and anti-discrimination work and hoped the research process would provide support for dealing with some issues within the program.