Celebrating Literacy: PALS Success Stories Video

PALS - Project Adult Literacy Society aims to showcase the transformative power of literacy programs through a compelling short video. The project focuses on highlighting the personal and educational achievements of adult learners who have participated in PALS programs. By capturing their stories, the video will illustrate the profound impact that improved literacy skills have on individuals' lives, including increased confidence, better job opportunities, and enhanced community engagement. The goal is to create an engaging and inspiring narrative that resonates with a broad audience, encouraging support for literacy initiatives. The project will involve interviewing selected learners, gathering testimonials, and creatively editing the footage to produce a cohesive and impactful video. This project provides students with the opportunity to apply their skills in video production, storytelling, and communication, while contributing to a meaningful cause.

Sustainability Project

P.A.L.S. is a charitable organization that helps adults improve their literacy skills for better employment or further educational opportunities through one to one tutoring and small group work Related SDG(s): No poverty, Quality education, Decent work and economic growth, Reduced inequalities Project: P.A.L.S works with individuals with extremely low literacy skills. Two challenges that arise from this are that 1) individuals with low literacy skills often have difficulty with identifying where literacy impacts their lives. They have often “made do” for so long that they are unaware of some of the challenges they face such as maintaining prescription medications correctly, accessing job information, or understanding a letter from their child’s school. 2) Lack of study skills or knowledge of how to develop them. As you know, learning is hard work and there are specific skills that students learn and develop to support their lifelong learning. With low literacy levels this can be very challenging to do. These two challenges may be addressed individually as two projects or by a single team as one project. Example potential projects could be a visual systems map showing the areas that literacy impacts and/or a visual study skills development resource that helps adults develop effective study skills to support them on improving their literacy skills.

Appreciation Event for Volunteer Tutors

Volunteer tutors are the core of P.A.L.S. - Project Adult Literacy Society. They meet with an adult learner for 1-2 hours each week on an on-going basis to support them in building their foundational literacy skills in reading, writing, speaking and understanding English, math or basic digital skills. We would like assistance in planning and running an appreciation event for our exceptional volunteers. This event can be in person or online or both. We are currently working with 150 active volunteer tutors.

Low-literacy and Social Inequality

About 58 out of 100 Canadian adults aged 16 to 65 have the basic reading skills they need for most everyday reading. However, the other 42 of the 100 working-age adults in Canada have lower literacy than is needed to cope with the increasing information demands of our society. The unequal distribution of strong literacy skills in society is associated with economic and social inequalities. Therefore, improving literacy skills across social class lines and between ethnic groups and the sexes is paramount to achieving greater equality of income and opportunity. Many with low literacy skills are uncomfortable disclosing their low literacy skills and asking for help. Low literacy has a strong social stigma, especially in the workplace. As the impact of technology in the labour market grows, workers without the confidence and learning skills to adapt may be left behind. Adults with low proficiency are just as motivated and interested in education as those with higher proficiency. However, they are much less likely to access education and training opportunities due to financial and time constraints. Also, Canadians with low proficiency and less than high school education have much less access to employer-sponsored training than Canadians with postsecondary education. How are low literacy skills impacting social equality? What steps can we take to reduce this inequality? What steps can we take to raise awareness among employers, educators, policymakers about the need to create more opportunities for growth for low-literacy adults.