Family literacy focus of new program

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Aboriginal families in four northwest communities will have a chance to work together to improve their literacy skills, thanks to a new program to be launched later this year.

Parent and Child . . . Partners for Life will be offered through the Western Region campus of Northlands College in Buffalo Narrows.

Rita McCallum, literacy facilitator with the college, is co-ordinating the new program, which will be offered in Buffalo Narrows, Beauval, La Loche, and Patuanak.

The program is designed to help both children and parents to improve their literacy skills, while also helping parents work to improve their parenting skills.

From her own experience, McCallum estimates that in over half of the families in the north, parents don't read to their children. So part of the solution to literacy problems is to make the parents aware of how important it is to encourage their children to read by reading to them.

"So I think by doing something like this, you're sort of helping people, showing them that reading is something that should be done. For one thing, it sure helps the children," she said. "It's sort of more like an awareness thing here. Making them aware that reading is very important, and that it should be started in earlier years."

What makes this program unique, McCallum explained, is that it will actually be two literacy programs -Literacy and Parenting Skills (LAPS) and Come Read With Me - combined into one.

"So the program will be for 10 weeks. The first eight weeks will be straight literacy and parenting skills. And the last two sessions will be the Come Read With Me, where we will bring in grandparents- Elders-to come in and share the story time with the kids. And they'll use the grandparents' stories in the Come Read With Me sessions," she explained.

McCallum hopes to hire and begin training four program tutors in October, with each of the tutors completing the LAPS workshop. Once the training is complete, then the workshops can begin.

The literacy program is being funded through the National Literacy Secretariat of Human Resources Development Canada. And although the money -in the amount of $10,800- is just to co-ordinate and offer the literacy programs in these four communities, McCallum hopes this is only the beginning.

"If all goes well, I'm hoping maybe to ask for a continuance. I work with 17 communities, and if it works well with the four that I'm using, then I'll probably try and work with four more," she said.

A strong supporter of the family literacy approach, McCallum explained that targeting programs at the entire family, rather than at just the children or just the adults, is more effective because it allows you to build on the strengths that already exist within the family unit.

"It shows respect. And they're developing literacy and skills that are already present in the families. And when you involve the family, you're not blocking out anybody. Respect is the main word here. You're using the wisdom, the skills, and everything that's already present in the family members, and using that and just building on it."

McCallum has been involved in coordinating family literacy programs for a number of years, starting with a program for teen parents and their children that she organized in 1996. Since then, she's run family literacy programs in a number of northern communities, including Beauval, Turnor Lake, and Garson Lake.

"Mind you, we don't get as many people as we'd like, but we do get a few coming, and that's a start for us," she said.

Running literacy programs in the north offers a number of challenges to both those offering the programs, and those attending, McCallum said. From trying to find a babysitter, to trying to find transportation to the program, to having to deal with weather in the winter months, all these factors can keep potential students away.

"And then there's the language barrier too. A lot of them speak straight Dene or Cree, the language that they're used to. nd then they come in and then they're sitting there," McCallum said. "That's why I prefer to have a program going in each community, and get somebody that knows both languages, English and Dene or English and Cree. And it usually helps, because you've got somebody there that can translate."

McCallum also works to overcome the language barrier by using learning materials that pertain to the culture of the students.

"And then using the Elders. You get the Elders involved and it builds on success. The strength of everybody, that's what I say. Like, this one Elder comes in, and I'm telling you, he's a good storyteller. And the kids would rather listen to him tell stories than look at the book.

"Mind you, the book is important for them too, but when that Elder comes in and starts telling the stories and he makes all these different noises of animals with his mouth and stuff like that, and the kids just really listen. Maybe because it's more to their culture. He's talking about different animals in the bush here, in the area here, and it really helps."