There are a number of Rotary Clubs in Nanaimo and the Rotary Daybreak club asked us to put together a proposal for a literacy program for children or youth that might fit the criteria of the Children's Opportunities Grants from Rotary International.

We submitted a proposal in partnership with School District 68's Alternate Schools and Nanaimo Youth Services. This was a program that we piloted last year and it proved to be very worthwhile. Volunteers work with young teens to get them off the street, back into school and help them stay there. We are hoping the proposal will be accepted as we have not been able to find another source of funding for it.

The Literacy Central VI Bookstore, (22 Commercial St.) behind Harbour Park Mall, has a large selection of near new books suitable for gift giving. Many of these books have never been read, their pages are pristine, the spines have not been cracked and the prices are great!

Thank you to Rutherford Mall. You might be interested to know that the promotion that Rutherford Mall had in September netted our bookstore 24,607 books. We have had a major cleaning out of old inventory to make room for these books. They have all been sorted and are being moved into the store as space allows.

The Ministry of Advanced Education, Training and Technology has launched a provincial initiative to increase access for youth to post-secondary studies. The program provides volunteer placements for youth ages 15 to 24 years.

These placements offer tuition credits (based on a value of $8.00 per hour) in exchange for volunteer work experience hours at non-profit organizations. Priority will be given to placements focussing on community development, culture, heritage, recreation, community safety and literacy. Jacqueline Webster has been working with Catie Norwood of Malaspina U-C to coordinate literacy related placements.

Anywhere from 30 to 45 youth will be placed in our community for the literacy focus alone. Some of the organizations participating are Vancouver Island Regional Library, Ladysmith Community Computer Centre, Nanaimo Independent Living, School District 68, Boys and Girls Club of Nanaimo, Malaspina U-C Volunteer Tutor Program, and Literacy Central VI.

It is important to remind you occasionally that there is still no government funding for community based literacy programs such as Literacy Central VI. We must continue to fund raise and to rely on bingo revenue to keep our offices and tutoring rooms open and to augment the hours of the tutor coordinator.

The Malaspina U-C Volunteer tutor program that we help coordinate and provide tutoring rooms and resource material for received a grant from the Ministry of Advanced Education Training and Technology that helped augment the tutor coordinator's hours last year and this year. Our understanding is that this grant will be reduced next year due to the government trying to stretch those dollars to cover more programs.

That means Literacy Central VI will have to come up with more funds if we hope to continue to have a full time tutor coordinator. This is the most essential part of the program. The volunteer tutors need to know they have the support of the tutor coordinator year round and we receive inquiries from learners year round. You can support Literacy Central VI by shopping at our bookstore and supporting our other fund raising activities either with your dollars or by spreading the word to your friends