My name is Kim Jensen and I am excited to announce that I was trained as a Family Literacy Workshop facilitator in May, 1997 by Laubach Literacy of Canada. The Family Literacy Workshop series is called "Creating a Learning Culture in the Home".

The workshop series "aims to break the cycle of illiteracy by showing families how they can enrich the learning environment in their homes. Parents and other caregivers are provided practical guidance in helping their children to develop positive self-esteem and to develop the skills necessary for success in reading and writing."

The series consists of three parts: Access to Reading; Reading to Write, Writing to Read; and Building Self-Esteem Through Communication, which can be held separately or as a group.

Kamloops Laubach Literacy Council's (KLLC) office successfully held their first Family Literacy workshops in May 1997 and are planning another series of workshops for the Fall. I am available to provide these workshops for other councils upon request.

For further information or to request promotional brochures or a series of workshops please contact the KLLC office at 828-BOOK I look forward to hearing from you! (in the Lower Mainland contact Anne Knott).

Provincial President's Notes
(Cher Mclean)

Congratulations to Interior Field Worker, Jan Seedhouse on being elected to the board of Literacy BC. Her voice on literacy issues will be of benefit to everyone in the province.

Meanwhile, Anne Knott, our Lower Mainland Field Worker is off on an extensive tour of India!

I want to share a little with you about a Laubach student from my community. One Sunday morning, I saw her sitting alone having breakfast at McDonalds. Wondering how she was doing, I went over and joined her. Teresa has had a tutor for over a year now, but finds learning very difficult because of her health problems. Nevertheless, despite her asthma, she climbs the stairs to our classroom. She is very persistent and tries not to miss her tutoring times.

This year she gave me two stories to print on our literacy page. The story we chose was about using wild plants as food. This is part of her native heritage. Teresa told her stories to her tutor who wrote them down for her and gave them to me. The stories were great. I learned that I would like to try wild chocolate lilies, apparently a real delicacy!

On this particular Sunday morning, I heard from Teresa about the shame and pain of not knowing how to read and write. She told me how impossible it is to fill out forms, and forms are everywhere. "How can I join anything if I can't fill out the form. I don't know how to ask for help, I can't make myself say that word." (illiterate) I could see the hurt in her eyes. After discussing the problem (and her fabulous baked salmon recipe), we came up with a solution. I would print a card for her to show whenever she needed help. We agreed that the card would say: "Hello, my name is Teresa, I have a problem reading and writing. Can you help me?" We both felt great about finding a solution to the problem.

Although I am with people every day who are being tutored for literacy, it is very difficult to imagine the courage and determination needed by someone who is a senior and has spent their whole life struggling with it. That is until I met Teresa and other senior learners at Laubach.

Laubach tutors in BC are doing a tremendous job Quietly and in private they help those who feel the shame and frustration that Teresa experiences. This first step of one-on-one tutoring is so important. Bravo Laubach tutors!!

So what do you think?

About the new name for our newsletter? Thanks to all who provided entries!! Alphabet Scoop was chosen because it seemed to fit with the Laubach posters that show the little guy trying to catch numbers and letters in a butterfly net, and also ties in with the theme of this newsletter!