Notice to Members: September is membership renewal month at LPM. Please renew your membership by September 30^th. Every renewing member will be entered in a draw for a surprise prize package!

September is Manitoba's Literacy Month

We celebrated in style with members, ministers, media, and other friends.

Literacy Partners of Manitoba held its annual open house on September 8th, International Literacy Day.

Diane McGifford, the Minister of Advanced Education and Literacy came by to proclaim September as Literacy Month in Manitoba.

A graduate of our “Learner Speakers' Training” and a member of the Learner Speakers' Bureau, Mininder Kalsi, spoke movingly about her struggles and successes in becoming literate in English.

Our interim executive director, Rob Sarginson, did interviews with Global News and the Winnipeg Free Press on the importance of Literacy Month and literacy programs in Manitoba. Rob Malo and Greg Findlay also unveiled their plans to raise buckets of cash for literacy at PGI 2010.

It was great to be able to eat, chat, and re-connect with so many learners, members, and other friends.

As Literacy Month continues what special literacy activities are you doing? Let us know.

Literacy Partners is looking for an Executive Director

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Job description

Literacy Partners of Manitoba (LPM) is a not for profit organization committed to raising literacy and essential skill levels in the province of Manitoba. LPM has a staff of 5 employees and an annual operating budget of $325,000. The Executive Director is accountable to the Board of Directors for the overall management of LPM.

LPM is looking for an individual who has:

• A post-secondary degree in community development, education, social sciences or management
• A minimum of 5 years management experience, preferably with a not for profit agency
• Demonstrated experience in developing and maintaining strong working relationships with funding agencies
• Knowledge of literacy and essential skills and experience working with equity groups is an asset
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills

Please reply in writing by 4pm on September 25, 2009 to:
Search Committee, Literacy Partners of Manitoba, 401-321 McDermot Avenue, Winnipeg, MB R3A 0A3.

We thank all applicants for their interest. However, we will only contact those candidates whom we wish to interview.

To read the full job description, click HERE.

Raise-a-Reader Day, September 23rd

Help support Raise-a-Reader day

From 7:00 am to 9:00 am on the morning of Wednesday, September 23rd, LPM staff and volunteers will be hawking copies of the Winnipeg Free Press to promote Raise-a-Reader day.

Come out to the corner of Tache and Goulet in St. Boniface. Buy a paper, and show your support for family literacy programs in Manitoba!

Radisson Hotels, Canwest Global and The Winnipeg Free Press will be holding a breakfast at the Radisson Hotel, 288 Portage from 9:30 – 11:00. The breakfast speaker this year will be Meta Nana Tshiovo from St. Norbert Adult Literacy program.

Literacy Partners of Manitoba's plain language training

Charles Moody will be back to teach introduction to Plain Language on October 28, 29, 2009.

The Introduction to Plain Language is a two day workshop covering:

• The principles of Plain Language and clear layout
• How to put your documents into Plain Language
• How to de-construct and revise difficult documents
• How audience reading ability trumps text
• The cost is $495.

Call Rob Sarginson at (204) 954-3856 by October 16 to register.

Advanced Plain Language: October 30, 2009.

Following the introductory course, Charles will offer an advanced course in Plain Language to those who have taken the first level.

The advance course covers:

• The principles of Plain Language and clear layout
• How to de-construct and revise difficult documents
• Grammar and usage tips
• Writing for the Web
• The cost is $295.

Call Rob Sarginson at (204) 954-3856 by October 15 to register.

The top 10 ways to recruit learners

According to our Northern and Western Programs Survey in May these are 10 ways used by practitioners to get their recruitment messages out.

Is your favorite strategy here?

1. Get present Learners to talk to their friends about your program. (They may do so simply because they feel so good about what you have helped them achieve).

2. Go to public events such as fairs and community activities and set up a display. Be seen, invite people, and inform individuals about your program at the same time.

3. Advertise in local newspapers, coffee news and school division flyers. One Interlake practitioner used to run a classified ad in the XXX adults only category – she knew her clientele!

4. Visit all potential referring agencies and provide information about your program. Put up posters.

5. Create a brochure about your program that is welcoming – brief, clearly worded with your contact information, stressing flexibility of the course offerings. Give this out to students, agencies, and employers in your area.

6. Do public service announcements (PSAs) on public access TV and radio if they are free and available.

7. Give information about your program to your students and ask them to pass it along.

8. Go to workplaces, hospitals, and clinic waiting rooms and leave brochures. Go after the older workers who are in jeopardy of losing their jobs to layoffs. Put up posters in the mall.

9. When meeting former and potential learners in a pub's parking lot, ask them why they aren't in class? Encourage them to attend.
         --This is the most dangerous of the options and should be used with caution.

10. Put up a welcoming message on your sign, front window, or door. You do not know who has been walking by and wondering if they should be coming in. Put on a big smile and sincere greeting when they do come through that door!

Five ways to retain the students you have past Christmas

This is what we learned from the practitioners in literacy programs across Manitoba who responded to our survey on our Northern and Western tour in May 2009.

The authors owe a debt of gratitude to Dorothy Mackeracher, author of “Making Sense of Adult Learning”.

This book is one of many helpful resources in LPM's online Resource Centre catalogue.

1. Build a friendly atmosphere in your class. Find out about each learner and their needs and visions. It's all right to have earlier classes to be more social than academic. The crucial thing is that during every class you have made it possible for each learner to succeed and take one step towards his/her personal vision or goal.
2. Help learners achieve successes every time they come to class. Even small successes motivate and create a platform leading to more learning next class. Recognize the small steps and victories that are made in the long journey.
3. Focus on the learners' needs, not the curriculum. In adult learning, the learner must come first, otherwise, s/he walks away. Adult education is not a high school environment, so there are no laws to bind them to the classroom. However, like all learners, they thrive in a positive, well run, and interesting environment when they are respected for their efforts and recognized for their successes.
4. Make your classes the answer to your learners' needs. Find out what their vision is then show how your program carries them to their goals. Make your content strong and focused on the learner's stated goals.
5. Individualize: Put each earner into their own course of study. Treat everyone the same, but do not compare. Respect their diverse learning needs. Do diagnostic tests to find out learning strengths to help you create individualized learning packages. This takes time and wisdom, but don't worry, you are a teacher - you can do it.

To borrow “Making Sense of Adult Learning” from the LPM library, visit http://www.mb.literacy.ca/resources/.

LPM's volunteer recruitment campaign

How LPM is getting out the word and how we can help you

Jan Graham, LEARN Line coordinator, and Carin Crowe, our “Volunteer” Volunteer Coordinator, were recently interviewed by Erin Madden of the Winnipeg Free press.

Jan and Carin's goal was to get out the message that literacy programs in Manitoba need volunteers.

Look for the article in an upcoming edition of the “volunteer” section in the Winnipeg Free Press. Also keep your eyes peeled for our LEARN Line posters and bookmarks.

LEARN Line posters will be sent out in October to Employment Manitoba, Service Canada, EIA Offices, Work Places, social service agencies, high school counsellors, elementary schools, places of worship and more throughout Winnipeg.

The large poster has already been distributed to all of the libraries in Winnipeg as well as 10,000 bookmarks.

Jan has already had a number of callers report that they learned about the LEARN Line thanks to the bookmarks.

If your adult literacy program needs volunteers, please contact us and we will help.

Let us know how many tutors you need. Also, please send us brief job descriptions for the volunteer tutors – that way we can better match volunteers to programs.

Contact Jan at learnline@mb.literacy.ca and she and Carin will help find volunteers for your program (or help you find a program to volunteer in).

Library News:

Remember: Our entire catalogue can be searched on line. If you cannot make it into our library, we will happily ship you the resource you want free of charge!

To view our entire Online Catalogue, click HERE.