| Award
Winning Program
“LAPS
is where I got my start on the first real day of my life. LAPS
has helped me so much. It teaches people like me the importance
of not giving up. LAPS has also showed me how to read to my
child and to teach her to feel good about who she is. It’s
a wonderful and important program for all involved.”
- LAPS
program participant
Literacy
and Parenting Skills (LAPS) is an innovative family literacy program
designed to provide literacy and parenting skills to at-risk parents
who wish such training. Created and developed at Bow Valley College,
Calgary, Alberta, in partnership with the Further Education Society
of Alberta, the LAPS program targets parents who have difficulties with
reading and writing. The materials for the curriculum are based on the
needs and concerns that are relevant to parents: i.e. discipline, communication
and so on. There are four LAPS manuals — one for mainstream population
groups, one for aboriginal groups, one for English as a Second Language
groups and one created especially for Canada’s Francophone community.
The Literacy
and Parenting Skills (LAPS) program won the 2000 Canada Post Literacy
Award in the Community Leadership category. This award honours “organizations
that have demonstrated long-term achievement, innovation, leadership
and organizational excellence in furthering literacy”.
As LAPS
authors Laureen MacKenzie and Elaine Cairns say: “We
are particularly proud of the fact that we have helped increase awareness
as to the literacy and ESL needs of adults in groups who have normally
not recognized or identified these needs”.
LAPS has
been in operation since 1996.
In addition
to the main manual, three other manuals have been developed to serve
the aboriginal, English as a Second Language and francophone populations,
as a response to community requests, and based on the original manual.
• For
more information on the history of the LAPS Program, click here.
The
LAPS “Family”
In addition
to producing the well-known series of Literacy and Parenting Skills
facilitator manuals, the LAPS program team also offers family literacy
classes in Calgary communities, provides facilitator training workshops
and Train the Trainer workshops across the country, and is actively
involved in family literacy research in Canada.
The LAPS “family” includes:
- The
“Path to Learning” video, this informative video illustrates
the main LAPS program in operation, including the program’s
philosophy. Testimonials from LAPS participants are highlighted.
- LAPS-ESL
training supplements designed to enhance the materials currently
available
and to accommodate parent/child groups. These materials include LAPS
manuals designed for ESL participants working at different Canadian
Language Benchmark levels; LAPS Interactive Parent/Child Activities;
Selected Reading of Interest to Parents; and an Annotated Bibliography
of Children’s Resources.
- An
Aboriginal video, Expanding Horizons, shows the Aboriginal Literacy
and Parenting Skills Program operating in three different First Nation
settings. Highlights include thoughts from elders and learners.
- A French
language video featuring the Francophone version of LAPS. The video
Grandir avec mon enfant: LAPS was developed to give a general idea
of the four versions of Literacy and Parenting Skills (LAPS). It presents
the program’s philosophy and gives an overview of the different
themes. Through interviews, the video emphasizes the benefits of the
program Grandir avec mon enfant: LAPS for participants and Francophone
communities across Canada.
NEW! Introducing the newest members of the LAPS family!
- LAPS Activity 2: A Fresh Look Children's Language and Literacy Development - We have had the opportunity to improve upon our main LAPS manual; numerous rhymes, songs, games and other activities have been augmented into the Activity 2 of each LAPS session, in addition to valuable information based on the latest research in brain development and language and literacy acquisition. To read more, click here.
- LAPS
for Teens - Many of our participants have both young and teen children
they have concerns with. This module has been developed to be used
either in conjunction with the main LAPS manuals or it may be used
as a complete program on its own for those parents whose primary
focus is dealing with teenagers. Topics include Understanding Changes
(teenagers are going through), Building a Teen’s Self-Esteem, Communicating
with a Teenager, Dealing with Anger: Yours and Theirs, and Families
as Teams. Literacy activities related to each of the topics are
included in each session. These materials will help you in your
work with parents of teens, and will hopefully help parents break
free from the “troubled teens” and embrace the “terrific teens”!
- Parenting
After Violence – This new LAPS module deals with the impact of
family violence on children and parenting relationships. Five specially
designed sessions
are available: Impact of Witnessing Family Violence, Family Patterns, Dealing
with Verbal and Emotional Abuse, Single Parenting, and Assertive Parents* (*Optional
Session). While the new module has been tested with regular parent education
facilitators, LAPS co-authors Laureen MacKenzie and Elaine Cairns recommend using
Parenting After Violence with caution and care, particularly the Assertive Parents
session, which may not be suitable for all parents. If you are interested in
offering these sessions, Laureen and Elaine are available for consultation.
- So,
Where Are the Males? was created to assist community agencies interested
in providing
language and literacy classes for males learning ESL. This
tool kit was developed as part of the Moving Forward project that
explored strategies and approaches to attract men learning English
as a second language, to ESL learning programs. The tool
kit allows the community agency to evaluate its own readiness to
provide such a program, explore strategies for attracting the target
client, and to examine seven tips for implementing a successful
language and literacy program. Topics and lesson plans have been
created that are geared to the interests of ESL men such as Community
Involvement, Family Leadership, Keeping Peace at Home, and School
Systems.
• For
more information on any of the new sessions/materials available, please
contact our
head office – click
here
• click here to view the partners
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