September

A Busy Month for Literacy and the OLC

By Anette Chawla and Sue Folinsbee, Co-Executive Directors

AS THE SUMMER IS ALMOST OVER and September is upon us, the Ontario Literacy Coalition is gearing up for a busy fall. We are preparing for two major happenings — the provincial election and three major outreach events.

Election Kit

We have sent out the OLC Election Kit to our members and posted it on our website at www.on.literacy.ca. We encourage you to use it during the provincial election campaign to promote awareness about the needs of people with literacy challenges and about adult literacy programs and services. The main goal is to educate candidates and secure commitments of support for literacy.

The kit includes a step-by-step strategy for approaching candidates, a list of questions to ask candidates, and sample letters to candidates from each party. The questions for candidates and party leaders have been formulated based on the reoccurring issues you as a field have brought forward to the OLC over the last year.

Outreach

The OLC has also been involved in International Adult Learners Week, International Literacy Day and the launch of our outreach Campaign: What did you learn today? … Literacy touches everything! In partnership with the five literacy networks in Barrie, Kingston, Oshawa, St. Catharines and Thunder Bay, we launched a week of promotions and activities from September 8–14. We have also produced new TV and radio commercials and created a postcard that has been distributed across the province.

Other September events that the OLC will be involved in include Raise-a-Reader and Word on the Street. Raise-a-Reader is an initiative of the CanWest Global Foundation to increase awareness of and raise money for children's literacy programs throughout Canada. The OLC is one of four beneficiaries for the Toronto event, which will take place on Thursday, September 25.

The money the OLC receives will be used for family literacy programming and development in Ontario. We will keep you posted as more information becomes available. Toronto's Word on the Street, Canada's largest one-day celebration of the printed word, happens on Sunday, September 28.

All of these events are an opportunity to raise the political and public profile of literacy as it affects millions of children and adults in Ontario.