Alberta Learning is investing $1.1 million annually into the cross-ministry Parent-Child Literacy Strategy so that parents of pre-school children across the province become actively aware of the importance of introducing their children to books at an early age and, as their children’s first teachers, knowledgeable of how to increase their children’s possibilities of being successful in school.

Input from the Community and Stakeholders
The Parent-Child Literacy Strategy was developed by a cross-ministry team with input from a survey of 69 family literacy programs and a Think Tank held in June 2000. The participants at the June 2000 Think Tank included representation from Aboriginal, francophone and immigrant communities as well as schools, libraries, child care agencies, health units, family service agencies, funding bodies, postsecondary institutions, adult literacy program participants and others.

The Think Tank participants refined the objectives and guiding principles for the Strategy and identified the Strategy’s key components – awareness raising; support to programs; training; needs assessment and evaluation; and provincial coordination.

Purpose and Objectives
The Parent-Child Literacy Strategy focuses on approaches integrating adult literacy instruction and early oral language development for children from birth to age six for economically and socially disadvantaged families.

The objectives of the Parent-Child Literacy Strategy are to :

• enhance the oral language, early literacy and social interaction skills of children from birth to age six so that they are better able to achieve success at home, school, and the community;
• strengthen and build the basic literacy skills of parents;
• support and foster the involvement of parents in their children’s learning; and
• develop and enhance community-based partnerships that support the development of language and literacy skills of families.

Guiding Principles
The Strategy is guided by the following principles.

The sooner the better – The more effective approaches are those that provide early supports for families and promote healthy positive behaviours.

Supportive of parents – Because the early years are critical for the healthy growth of a child, some of the most effective ways of helping children is assisting their parents in caring for their child’s physical, emotional and intellectual needs.

Family focused – Recognizes that the needs of children are in most cases best met within the context of the family, culture and community.

Culturally appropriate – Recognizes and respects the culture, spirituality, and traditions of children and families.

Comprehensive, integrated and sustained – Responses to the needs of families and children require comprehensive, integrated and longer-term approaches.

Capacity building – Recognizes and responds to the needs of children by building the capacity of families and communities to meet those needs.

Community-based partnerships – Preventive approaches are most effective when they are comprehensive, community-based interventions that involve many community partners and are readily accessible to families at convenient community sites.

Builds on what already exists – Recognizes and builds on the expertise, programs and communitybased partnerships that already exist.

Best practice – Initiatives for children and families will be based on sound early literacy and adult literacy principles and practice informed by empirically validated research and experience.

Accountable – Effective initiatives will have an appropriate accountability structure, and will account regularly for decisions, choices and outcomes.

Summary of Strategy Activities
The Strategy is being implemented through a partnership between six Alberta government ministries and the Centre for Family Literacy in Edmonton, with the assistance of the literacy community.

1. Awareness Raising

• The Centre for Family Literacy has developed packages including a family literacy video, an information kit, and a PowerPoint presentation for use by family literacy programs around the province.
• The Centre has researched and produced “Literacy Happens: A Resource Manual for Community Literacy Awareness Training.”
• The first three special issues on Family Literacy of English Express, a newspaper for adults who are improving their English reading skills, were published. There will be a total of eight special issues on Family Literacy.
• A working group will be formed to develop an awareness raising strategy that will build on existing campaigns.

2. Support to Programs

• The Centre for Family Literacy has consulted with family literacy practitioners and finalized “Good Practice Statements for Family Literacy”.
• The Centre has also undertaken a review of outreach strategies for family literacy programs and produced “Pathways Sourcebook: A Guide for family literacy coordinators and facilitators to attract parents into community programs.”
• Alberta Learning released the Family Literacy Initiative Fund Guidelines in January 2002 and will do so again in 2003. Nonprofit organizations can apply for funding for projects up to three years in length to provide family literacy programs for economically and socially disadvantaged families with pre-school children.
• Literacy Coordinators of Alberta organized two information sessions to help launch the Family Literacy Initiative Fund.
• Pilot projects are taking place in two Child and Family Services Regions to create partnerships between family literacy programs and home visitation collaboratives.

3. Training

• The Centre for Family Literacy provided foundational training in March 2002 for 40 participants
• The Centre provided family literacy models training in June 2002 for 60 participants.
• The Centre developed and provided family literacy training to home visitors in the two pilot regions.
• A survey was completed to identify training topics. More training is being planned.

4. Needs Assessment and Evaluation

• The Centre for Family Literacy is completing an inventory of evaluation tools and strategies used by family literacy programs.
• The Centre is also developing an assessment tool to be used by home visitors in identifying the literacy needs of families.
• Alberta Learning is developing an evaluation framework and strategy.

5. Provincial Coordination

• A team led by Alberta Learning with representatives from Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development;Children’s Services; Health and Wellness; Human Resources and Employment; and Solicitor General is implementing the Strategy. A key role of the team is to ensure that the strategy is coordinated with and complementary to other early childhood development and adult learning initiatives in Alberta.
• Yvon Laberge, a family literacy specialist, is contracted to support the Implementation Team and Community Programs, Alberta Learning, which takes the lead for the strategy. The Implementation Team gained further input from stakeholders through a Second Family Literacy Think Tank held in May 2002, organized and facilitated by the Alberta Association for Adult Literacy.

For more information : Alberta Learning, Community Programs, Commerce Place, 10155 102nd Street, 8th floor, Edmonton, AB T5J 4L5 Keith.Anderson@gov.ab.ca    http://www.learning.gov.ab.ca/