April 2003

Community Literacy of Ontario

Written by Wanda Minnings, Executive Director,
Simcoe/Muskoka Literacy Network

A Grassroots Approach to Working with
Ontario Works

In March 2002, the nineteen LBS programs within the Simcoe/Muskoka Literacy Network were poised and ready to accept a much-anticipated onslaught of OW clients. Most of the talk around the LSP tables as well as at numerous meetings with the two Ontario Works regional offices within our network area set the groundwork for additional program preparation and expansion. And, once the planning was done, everyone waited for the fax machines to hum with direct referrals coming through from the OW Literacy Implementation Plans that were in place. Instead, the silence was deafening.

We work closely with both the Muskoka and the Simcoe OW regional offices. The Implementation Plans developed with both OW offices differed significantly. We monitored and tracked statistics relating to the numbers of OW clients and new OW referrals, but the results were the same each month: no new clients; no numbers to report.

In June 2002 the Operations Manager for Simcoe OW attended and spoke at the network’s AGM. Staff, managers, and our MTCU representative spoke openly about OW clients and the programs in place for them. E-mails were exchanged, and when LSP groups resumed in September 2002, they began developing what
resembled a ‘marketing strategy’.

Arrangements were made to have each of our LSP groups attend an OW staff meeting in their respective communities. The meetings were conducted as roundtables in which both LBS and OW staff could comment and question openly. Suggestions were noted and implemented, and communications maintained between OW satellite offices, LBS programs and the network.

Each LSP group then planned and hosted a Stakeholders Breakfast as part of
their monthly LSP meeting. OW was a very visible presence at these meetings.
One result of these meetings was a request to conduct a workshop for OW and FOCUS staff in South Simcoe on “Making Referrals and Understanding Assessments”. (The presentation, conducted by Melanie Remonde, MaryAnne Myers and Joanne Stuart, was so well received that it has since been given regionally to all OW employment services workers!)

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