Applause coming from the Elementary Literacy Friends program, after the provincial government’s multi million dollar literacy announcement.
One of key priorities in the government’s new strategy, is offering support to parents to allow them to enhance skills at home.
But Executive Director Erin Schryer this means ensuring that moms and dads have the literacy skills they need to help their kids, “A parent is a child’s most influential teacher I would argue, so we need to support them with the tools they need to improve their literacy as well. As much as I advocate for early and preventative, I recognize the need to work with adults as well.”
She says the fact that the government has announced a strategy is very encouraging, “Seeing this plan is, I know for me, I like a plan. I like benchmarks, I like to know exactly where we are going and for us in the community as a community organization, it is important to have a partner. The government is one of our most important partners.”
The multi million dollar investment from the province includes money to support the hiring of 36 new literacy leads in the province.
Schryer says this is also important because they currently have many volunteers filling that role, which she says is fantastic, but they also need skilled individuals as well.