New Modules for Foundations
in Family Literacy

Family Literacy and Health

Some funding has recently been secured from the Public Health Agency of Canada to write the Family Literacy and Health module for Foundations in Family Literacy. We will be working on this project with the National Collaborating Centre–Determinants of Health, located at St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia.

The National Collaborating Centre–Determinants of Health (NCC–DH) is one of six National Collaborating Centres established by the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) as part of its movement towards a Pan-Canadian Public Health Strategy. These NCCs work with each other, and other relevant partners, to translate existing knowledge into evidence-based practice and policy to improve public health in Canada. The NCC-DH is hosted by a consortium of Atlantic-based University-Health Authority partners. The NCC-DH’s first priority for Stream One is to address literacy as a determinant of health and health literacy.

The Health and Family Literacy module will consist of English and French components, with writers from both teams working together with the framework established by the Steering committee. Writers for the Anglophone module will be Lorri Sauve and Jane Tuer from Ontario. The writer for the Francophone module will be Suzanne Dionne-Coster from British Columbia.

The module will be piloted nationally in early May. It is hoped that the collaboration on this project, and the resulting resources and pilot workshop, will help shape similar cross-sector collaborations and information exchanges between health and literacy practitioners across the country.

Family Literacy and Immigrant Families

As part of a larger project that is looking at best practices in family literacy when working with immigrant families, Alberta Advanced Education and Technology is funding this new module for Foundational Training. Dawne Clark from Mount Royal College in Calgary and Irene Hoffert of Synergy Research will be the writers of this module. We anticipate that the module will be completed by this summer.

Family Literacy and Schools

We are also delighted that Jim Anderson of the University of British Columbia and Fiona Morrison, Director of Family Literacy and Early Learning 2010 Legacies Now, have recently agreed to write a third new module on Family Literacy and Schools. Jim and Fiona have done a large amount of work with school-based family literacy programs and look forward to expanding the knowledge base of Foundational Training with this new module.

It is exciting to be able to report on these new developments. We hope to secure support for further modules in the near future and also to move forward with updates and revisions to the existing Practitioners’ Resource.

Janet Shively
Next Steps Steering Committee

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