Fort St. James Community Literacy Plan 2015

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Fort St. James

Community Literacy Plan 2015

Table of Contents 1. Task Group ............................................................................................................................ 2

Who takes part?........................................................................................................................... 2

How is the work of this group organized? .................................................................................. 2

2. Community Context .............................................................................................................. 3

Describe your community in one or two short paragraphs (e.g. size, economy, demographics,

and trends). Are there any major changes that have taken place over the last year the impact

the ability of organizations to support literacy development – positive or negative? ................ 3

3. Community Development and Literacy Collaboration ...................................................... 4

Provide an example of an important collaboration that has taken place to support literacy and

the work of the task group. ......................................................................................................... 4

4. Goals and actions for the current year: ............................................................................... 6

What priorities, goals, or objective have you addressed in the past year? .................................. 6

What actions were taken to reach these? What organizations and groups participated in these?

..................................................................................................................................................... 6

What adjustments were made to the plan? .................................................................................. 7

5. Indications of Success ............................................................................................................ 7

How do you know that actions taken are working to support literacy? ...................................... 7

What impact have the literacy initiatives had? It is important to include examples to illustrate

the impacts. ................................................................................................................................. 7

6. Challenges............................................................................................................................... 7

What are the difficulties? ............................................................................................................ 7

What would help? ....................................................................................................................... 8

7. For the Coming Year: ........................................................................................................... 8

Are there new opportunities, challenges or issues in your community? ..................................... 8

What goals, priorities or objectives will you work on in the coming year? What actions are

planned against those goals? ....................................................................................................... 8

What will be required to meet those goals and effectively employ actions for the coming year?

..................................................................................................................................................... 9

How will you measure the success of actions taken to address those goals? ............................. 9

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1. Task Group

Who takes part?

Members of the Fort St. James Literacy Advisory Committee are:

College of New Caledonia

Nak’azdli Health Center

Northern Health Interior Health Unit

Fort St. James Public Library

Fort St. James National Historic Park

School District 91 - Local teachers and principals (current)

First Nations Representatives – Nak’azdli, Tl’azt’en, Yekooche, Takla and

Binche Keyoh

Parents

Early Childhood Development Committee

Fort St. James Municipal Office

Fireweed Collective Society

Local Businesses

StrongStart – Fort St. James

English as a Second Language group – CIC and Welcome BC

Community Adult Literacy Programs

How is the work of this group organized?

Regular Meetings ( three times a year)

Regular E-Mails

Literacy Outreach Coordinator drafts responses to the Guiding Questions

Draft is circulated to our sponsoring agency (College of New Caledonia) for

input

Draft is then circulated to literacy task group members by e-mail for input

LOC coordinates with community partners to deliver planned initiatives

Task group members are encouraged to spearhead particular initiatives

A new LOC was hired in September 2014, she has spent a great deal of time meeting

people, agencies, and service providers.

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2. Community Context

Describe your community in one or two short paragraphs (e.g. size, economy,

demographics, and trends). Are there any major changes that have taken place over the

last year the impact the ability of organizations to support literacy development –

positive or negative?

Geography:

Located on the beautiful shores of Nak’albun (Stuart Lake), the community of Fort St.

James is a gateway to the region.

The area population includes the District of Fort St. James (population of 1,691 - Census

2011) municipality and its adjacent Bulkley Nechako Regional District Area “C”

(population 1,429 – Census 2011). The Regional District population disbursed in various

pockets of rural and farming settlement areas. Additionally the Regional District

includes four First Nation communities, Nak'azdli Band, Tl'azt'en Nation, Takla Lake

First Nation and Yekooche Fist Nation with an estimated total on-reserve population of

±1,380.

Fort St. James is the service hub for all these populations to access banking, medical,

social health, education, retail, grocery and many other services.

Economy:

Fort St. James is experiencing an economic shift in the Forestry Industry as the New

Biomass Energy Plant is under construction with expected production to begin January

2016. That being said, the announcement of the finger-joint stud mill closure in July

2015 will bring 43 residents to being unemployed.

Student Population:

Declining enrollment in Fort St. James has resulted in the announcement of the closure of

Sowchea Elementary School, therefore these students will be starting the 2015-2016

school year at David Hoy Elementary school. In addition to the Fort St. James High

School, the community also has 4 independent elementary schools.

David Hoy Elementary/Sowchea 300 students

Fort St. James Senior Secondary School 310 students

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Nak’al Bun Elementary School (Nak’azdli) 120 students

Eugene Joseph Elementary School (Tl’azt’en) 55 students

Jean Marie Joseph School (Yekooche) 17 students 31 Adult Learners

Nus Wak’eezuch School (Takla) 25 students

Literacy Supports:

There also has been a change in coordinators in the past year. Our coordinator began

her work in September 2014 and has spent a great deal of time meeting people,

agencies, and service providers. LOC funding for 2014-2015 is a positive factor in

support for community literacy in Fort St. James. As the stigma attached to

addressing literacy issues decreases, the College of New Caledonia and the Learning

Hub are seeing an increase in learners which represent a more mainstream population,

rather than only those with multiple barriers.

3. Community Development and Literacy Collaboration

Provide an example of an important collaboration that has taken place to support

literacy and the work of the task group.

There are currently 27 families that are part of the Family Literacy Program, which has

been restructured and now being distributed. The LOC also recently travelled to the

remote First Nation of Yekooche in June to present the Family Literacy Program, this

small village is 75 km Northwest of Fort St. James on the Cunningham Forest Road.

Plans are being made to travel to the village again in the October. Nak’al Bun school’s

Parent Advisory has expressed interest in starting Family Literacy program within the

school.

An important collaboration involves the Nak’azdli Social Development Department and

the Learning Hub in Aboriginal Adult Literacy, the Nak’azdli Learning Group consists in

ten men and women from the Nak’azdli First Nation that come in once a week to learn

about Healthy Living, Computer Literacy, Goal Setting. Budgeting, and Job Readiness.

We have also been working closely with the Fort St. James Public Library as we donated

books to the youth reading club, we have also had a Lego Night at the Library during

Family Literacy Week.

With the help from Mt. Milligan and Decoda Literacy Solutions, we were able to provide

every child with a new book, whose family receives Christmas hampers in the First

Nation communities of Fort St. James, Nak’azdli, Yekooche, Tla’zten, and Takla Lake.

Over 500 books were distributed in time for Christmas.

The Fort St. James Adult Education Center in Fort St. James closed at the end of the

school year in June of 2014, therefore the Learning Hub has been helping clients sign up

for EBUS, BC Online School.

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The KEY Resource Center’s focus is now on “lifelong learning” and literacy. This social

enterprise supports the most marginalized community member in Fort St. James. This

program is an entry point for the community to be engaged in literacy initiatives and then

are often referred to the Learning Hub.

The Early Childhood Development Committee hosted a Preschool event which the

Learning Hub was able to profile all the literacy supports available within the

community.

The Learning Hub (CNC) was successful in continuing to secure funding for CALP for

the next three years. For our ESL learners we continue to have CIC funds and Welcome

BC funding. This ongoing funding ensures that more formal programming can be

accessed as the Literacy message is set out into the community.

The new LOC participated in the DECODA network session in Prince George which

enabled her to put her work in perspective. This also assisted her with forming a regional

network. Both the Vanderhoof and Fraser Lake programs made a visit to the Learning

Hub.

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4. Goals and actions for the current year:

What priorities, goals, or objective have you addressed in the past year?

Increase community awareness of literacy

Increase literacy participation at The KEY

Engage representatives from the local First Nations on how to address literacy

and reading motivational issues within the aboriginal community.

Continue with the ongoing Family Literacy Program, outreaching into the

community to support early childhood reading readiness.

Build capacity by recruiting more tutors and providing tutor training

Looking for partners to build book bins for “Give a Book, Take a Book” to

ensure access to books

Continue with our “Coffee Talk” and Seniors “North of 50” easy read

newsletters by recruiting a volunteer to type the month newsletters.

Network and collaborate at the quarterly Fort St. James Interagency meetings

to address literacy awareness within the community agencies.

Continue to support “Best Driver’s Program” and “Aboriginal Financial

Literacy” program.

What actions were taken to reach these? What organizations and groups participated in

these?

The LOC met with local organizations and groups in the community to promote and support

literacy awareness:

College of New Caledonia

Early Child Development Committee

Fort St. James Public Library

Decoda Literacy Solutions

Mt. Milligan Mines (Thompson Creek Metals)

Yekooche First Nation

Tla’zt’en First Nation

Nak’azdli Social Development

Nak’albun Elementary School

District of Fort St. James

School District 91

The Key Resource Center

Nechako Valley Community Services

Uloo Khoh (Mother Goose Program) Nak’azdli Health

Nak’azdli Family Bonding

Volunteer Fort St. James

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What adjustments were made to the plan?

The Family Literacy Kit has been restructured to include 26 different

modules, from the previous small literacy kit that was offered.

There has not been a Native Translator available to continue with the “Yinka

Dene Dust’lus: People of the Earth Newsletter

5. Indications of Success

How do you know that actions taken are working to support literacy?

What impact have the literacy initiatives had? It is important to include examples to

illustrate the impacts.

At the beginning of September 2014, The Family Literacy Program had 9 families

participating. By the end of June 2015, the program now has 18 more families

participating for a total of 27. Also being able to host “Kitchen Table Learning

Workshop” from Prince George, attendance was successful.

Creating a Digital Environment for everyone. Participation in Seniors Computer Literacy

has also being successful with 4 different programs (Beginners, Facebook 101, Shopping

Safely Online, and Working with Photos)

These learners then met every Thursday afternoon at the Learning Hub for informal

classes where they took ownership and shared with each other their computer skills.

Increased attendance at the Learning Hub this year, as 568 people accessed the services

over the 10 month period. Events that kept our learners busy were: Children’s Fair,

Beginner Seniors Computers, Financial Literacy Workshop, Christmas Book Donation,

Cultural Awareness Workshop, Plain & Clear Language Workshop, Customer Service,

Assertiveness & Self-Awareness, Facebook 101, Shopping Safely Online and Working

w/Photos.

Increased awareness and interest in literacy within the community.

Ongoing collaborations with Fort St. James Library, District of Fort St. James, and

others. The District of Fort St. James continues to support the “Literacy Lives in Fort St

James” campaign.

Invitations to continue participation in community events such as the Children’s Festival

6. Challenges

What are the difficulties?

Uncertainty of stable funding, need to broaden our financial base

Shortage of staff and/or volunteers to move our many initiatives forward.

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Although we have had some success with engaging industry, we need to build further

relationships with this sector.

Large geographic area presents logistical problems.

Literacy work needs time and patience from the whole community, measures of success

come in many different shapes and sizes.

Due to the fact there has been a lot of change in Program Coordinators the past couple of

years, building trusting relationships with our learners are key. Making the Learning Hub

a safe, comfortable atmosphere for them is most beneficial to their learning experience.

What would help?

Sustainable funding which would also for long term planning, because yearly funding

only limits what program building takes longer than a year to enhance literacy skills in a

community.

Industry investment in literacy

7. For the Coming Year:

Are there new opportunities, challenges or issues in your community?

Take the opportunity to focus more on increasing the level of literacy and numeracy

proficiencies among adults to meet the increasing demands of our labour market. Work

more directly with industry.

Increase Family Literacy Projects and being able to provide our services to those in

remote First Nations’ communities in the outlying areas of Fort St. James.

Support the 5 core Parenting literacy behaviours to support early intervention.

Support the focus on literacy through Labour Market Training

Implement the Collective Impact initiative with our literacy advisory committee.

Continue to work to build relationships with our literacy programs.

We can all take ownership of Literacy Awareness in Fort St. James.

What goals, priorities or objectives will you work on in the coming year? What actions

are planned against those goals?

Look for new opportunities, building new partnerships. Engage the Fort St. James

Chamber of Commerce, local churches and NFP organizations.

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Strengthening existing programs and partnerships already in progress. Collaboration is

key. Ensure ongoing outreach through monthly newsletters and email information

sessions.

Work to become more visible in the community through outreach, partnerships, and

participation. Ensure all our literacy information is hosted at The KEY, business and

industry lunchrooms and with our First Nation communities.

Continue to build out our Advisory attendance. Preschedule the meetings for the year.

What will be required to meet those goals and effectively employ actions for the coming

year?

Renewable Funding

Practical timeline for implementation of goals

More strategic use of LOC hours

How will you measure the success of actions taken to address those goals?

Attendance and participation in our workshops/programs

New partnerships

Maintain programs with current partners

Ability to develop community awareness to the needs of the community

Building trusting relationships with the learners and partners

A common community understanding of literacy

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Children’s Fair, October 2014 Family Literacy Week Selfie Challenge 2015

Family Literacy Day 2015

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Seniors Computers, November 2014

Basic Computers, April 2015

Family Literacy Week 2015

Year End Crafting Project, June 2015

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