Message from the Chair

Greetings fellow literacy advocates! I hope you are having a productive season - and still have some time to enjoy the delights of summer on the Island.

At the Alliance office things are busy, with the Summer Tutoring Program up and running. Coordinator Julie Mulcahy is busy supervising 22 tutors in libraries and other locations across PEI. The Alliance is co-sponsoring this project with the Department of Education with funding from Student Career Placement program of Human Resources Development Canada. Over 550 school-age children chosen by their resource teachers are participating in the program, which aims to help students avoid “school skills slippage” through the summer. We are happy to be able to provide French-language tutors through this program this year.

Destination Employment, a program to help unemployed adults with learning disabilities, is now housed at the Alliance. Coordinator Blaine Hrabi has been hired to work with the target group and also with employers, to help them understand how to make their workplaces more accessible to adults with learning disabilities. Fourteen work placements will be arranged through this program.

The Alliance is a semifinalist for the 2002 Canada Post Literacy award for Community Leadership. Naturally it is an honour just to be nominated, but we have our fingers crossed! The winner will be declared at the Charlottetown Hotel on September 9, at the awards ceremony following the Alliance AGM. We hope to see you there!

- Mary Burke