T.R.E.E.
Student Committee of Canada

Laubach Literacy of Canada's Student Committee was created to provide students with the opportunity to participate in leadership development and the promotion of literacy awareness.

In May 1998, at LLC's national biennial conference in Ottawa, a strategic planning session was held. A dot-mocracy exercise was used to prioritize the top four areas that needed to be addressed. Student advocacy was the number one priority. A "Steering Committee" was then formed consisting of Lana Faessler, Dorothy Silver, Ed Oldford, Donald Haines, Shirley Sandul and a student to be named. With LLC's National Student Representative, Arnold Stewart, as the committee chair, their mandate was to address student advocacy and leadership.

In September 1999, the Steering Committee held its first planning session in Fredericton, NB. The acronym T.R.E.E. was born-the mission-Teamwork to Raise Education and Equality.

The T.R.E.E. Steering Committee presented their recommendations and budget to the LLC National Board in November 1999. All was approved and the Board continued to support the development of the T.R.E.E. concept including the August 2000 hiring of T.R.E.E. Coordinator, Pennyann Tibbitts.

In May 2001, the T.R.E.E. Steering Committee became "Teamwork to Raise Education and Equality Student Committee of Canada," a permanent committee, and is now part of the LLC Bylaws.

We have learned a lot about what it takes to start something so new as a National Student Committee. The student reps and their coaches have been working very hard as volunteers to create a solid foundation. In May 2000, in Gander, NF, we asked students the question-"What could the T.R.E.E. Student Committee do for you?" We documented their needs and interests and have since been delivering some of these supportive needs and services.

T.R.E.E.
Planting Ceremony in Charlottetown, PEI, May 2001

Accomplishments from May 2000 to October 2001:

• 8 workshop presentations (7 promotional speaking engagements and 5 national LLC Board presentations).

• On International Literacy Day 2000, the T.R.E.E. website was launched on the LLC site.

• We held our first election process in Quebec and Ontario. (Doreen Aubertin, QC and Gary Porter, ON)

• Job descriptions and Terms of Reference for a permanent Standing Committee were developed.

• Presented a T.R.E.E. Orientation Training Manual to the LLC Board.

• Worked with LLC's Director of Programs on a training module on "How to set up a local student committee," with the development of a module. In May 2001, we held our first Committee Training Day in PEI.

• We ended our year May to December 2000 with a student database of 100 members strong. Our goal is to double that number of voices by the end of this year.

Throughout the year 2000 students said that student support groups within their councils would be their number one priority. With this in mind, the focus for 2001 will be to set up student support groups within councils with the following goals: