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We asked Lori Johnston to drop by the Alliance office to talk
about her work. Lori is the Literacy Awareness Coordinator for the Literacy
Initiatives
Tell us about your background, and your involvement with
literacy.
I have been working in the literacy field for three years
now. I have spent time over the years doing substitute teaching. I didn’t
really get into the education field until I left my job at the TD Bank. I heard
they were recruiting for Workplace Education instructors. They were looking for
people who had a varied background so they could take their various
experiences, education and training to help develop literacy programs in the
workplace.
I was recruited and took the training. I’ve co-ordinated
workplace education programs the last three years, and I hope to have another
one starting later on this fall. Most programs run from January until April,
which seems to be the time of year when people in the workplace want to sign
up. Some employers are able to give the employees time off work for the
program. Some employees might come an hour early to use some of their own time
and then use an hour of company time to take the program. Not all employers are
able to give time off, so sometimes people have to attend after work.
Is it just workplaces with unions who
participate?
Not always, but often it is the unionized companies,
because of their higher level of organization. I did a tourism awareness
program with the Inns of Distinction.
So it isn’t always literacy training.
You
tie literacy in with the situation. One important thing we did in this program
was map reading. Many of the participants didn’t know how to read a map,
or to locate the route numbers and so on. We also did presentation skills. Once
the company and employees decide what kind of program they want, I go in and
design the curriculum and run the program. They may meet once a week, or more
if it’s a GED program.
What other things have you been working on?
I
was part of the big public awareness campaign that featured the reading line
number in the “Want to read better?” ads. I did a literacy
orientation with the Access PEI centres. I visited each site and gave a
presentation about literacy. It was mostly small groups, so we were able to sit
down and discuss how literacy levels affected the way services are delivered.
Sometimes, at the beginning of the presentation, people felt there wasn’t
a problem in their community. Then I showed the Literacy Matters video, and
suddenly people would recognize specific instances where they had been dealing
with people who probably couldn’t read well. I think it made a difference
to the people I worked with. |
