Back row L-R
Lyn Robilliard (Portage-la-Prairie), Grace Kirton (Winnipeg), Imah Browne (Winnipeg via Aruba), Anita Martens (Winnipeg via Mexico), Afaf Abodigin (Winnipeg via Sudan), Sabrina Fleury (Minnedosa), Donatien Fournier (Winnipeg), Cindy Sparkman (Swan River)

Middle Row L-R
Kristen Maximchuk (Selkirk), Shelley Ringrose (Flin Flon), Maria Goncalves (Winnipeg via Portugal), Robin Reid (Winnipeg)

Front Row L-R
Jan Graham (facilitator - Literacy Partners of Manitoba), Raymond Roy (Tourond), Cheryl Soluk (facilitator – Employment Manitoba)

Learner Caucus

Literacy Partners of Manitoba together with Adult Learning and Literacy organized an Adult Learners Caucus to take part in this first of its kind, interactive, coast-to-coast, live national forum.

Learners from all over Manitoba participated in the Adult Learners Caucus. Representatives came from Flin Flon, Minnedosa, Portage-la-Prairie, Selkirk, Swan River, Tourond, and Winnipeg.

This was a great opportunity for the learners to:
- Meet delegates from all over Manitoba;
- Ask questions based on their unique perspective;
- Learn about employers’ views of the role of literacy in the workplace;
- Voice opinions about what they heard and what they would like to see happen in the future.
- Training prior to and during the forum was provided so the caucus members could fully take advantage of this opportunity.

Outcomes included learning how to:
- Listen to a speech.
- Make notes before, during, and after a speech.
- Come to a consensus for a group response
- Speak in public
- Collaborate with others to create a presentation (Theatre of Voices) based on excerpts from stories about difficulties faced in the - - workplace because of low reading, writing, and/or math skills.

Learners agreed that this had been a life changing event. One caucus member, who turned back twice before arriving at the orientation, later stood up in a large audience to ask the speaker a question. Another learner volunteered to make a three hour return journey once a week for four weeks to participate in additional LPM public speaking training. Several practitioners reported that the learners were really “pumped” when they returned to class following the forum. Audience members who heard the Theatre of Learner Voices presentation near the end of the forum were moved to tears.

Keep an eye on Literacy Partners of Manitoba’s web page www.mb.literacy.ca for a future link to the film of this presentation in CMEC’s heritage documents.

—Submitted by Jan Graham, Learner Outreach Coordinator