The importance of the CASP experience is shown not only in the changes in the learners' attitudes but also in how literacy is handled at home. Guardians and parents report that they help their children with their spelling, reading, math and writing homework. They also help their families by telling their children about the importance of staying in or returning to school. The emphasis in these reports is on the learner helping their children with the child's school-related literacy concerns, rather than on going to the library, telling or reading stories to the children in their homes. The learners themselves were intent on personal literacy development through schooling and may have altered their own perceptions about schooling. The learners interest in and experiences of schooling at CASP are far different than their earlier experiences, leading to outcomes that indicate CASP can be a useful model for adult learners.

A climate of learning may be developing in some of these families. It remains to be seen if these antecedent literacy experiences will inform both the family and community literacy programming and practices. Literacy planners and educators "... must learn about the literacy that occurs in homes of families from diverse cultural backgrounds and how these parents and other caregivers and children share literacy on a daily basis" (Morrow, 1995, p.73)

This article has reported on the survey of 175 CASP learners in 15 anglophone CASPs in New Brunswick. The survey was conducted to learn more about past and present literacy experiences of the respondents and about their experiences in CASP.