• Major problems facing the program include funding, learner motivation to complete objectives, outreach to increase the Level 1 learners, a 68% unemployment rate (making hope harder to come by and maintain) and having to deal with the requirements of the funding parties.

• An employment counsellor comes in each week to provide services in the following areas: training, apprenticeship, résumés, job search (including the electronic job market), and assessing skills and careers.

Some Final Observations & Concerns:

Given that this program has been in operation less than two years, yet has its own building and four staff, there has to be a solid foundation. It is visible in two ways: the political will (a good portion of funding comes from Wasauksing) and the ability of the Literacy Coordinator to just go out and ask for things (this year, he was elected to the Ontario Native Literacy Coalition Board of Directors). The staff also form a good team that believes: "...the legacy of western education, which is based on obedience, ‘experts’ linear thinking, competition, imposed curricula and expectations, comparisons to others; i.e., power and control politics — so the question arises as to how to undo the damage done by this form of education and develop learning methods based on empowerment, wisdom, self-actualization, practical living and a holistic outlook. Coupled with this concern is the interplay between reasserting traditional ways of learning with the need to survive/thrive, in certain ways at least, in the dominant culture."