LPM Steers New Course

Enthusiastic Response
“I am very excited about this historic development,” LPM Executive Director Marg Rose stated. “While I did not take this job to be a fundraiser, I do see the dire needs that community-based programs face in trying to deliver quality services to a wide range of learners all over Manitoba. We applaud the new government for its commitment to adult and family literacy through an increase of $100,000 in the grants this year, and additional funds for enhanced technology. We welcome the LEARN line funding by the Employment Partnerships program of Manitoba Education, which helped link hundreds of willing learners to program referrals last year. The Fall consultations on the adult learning centre explosion and the legitimate place of adult literacy programs as part of the lifelong learning spectrum are welcome investigations. Many positive steps are being taken.”

Margaret Allan and Tess Genise examine kits

“More partnerships are required to make existing programs secure, as well as to open new doors. Provincial grants of $1.3 million to forty literacy programs and federal NLS projects totalling $650,000 are welcome, but are still insufficient to address the skills gap for basic upgrading needs of seniors, and learners eager to enter the labour market,” regional coordinator Rob Sarginson added.

Fundraising consultant Fred Dugdale agreed. “Literacy is about creating opportunities for families and communities. We are investigating the establishment of a separate endowment fund to build a more sustainable future for helping address the unmet need for literacy programming in rural areas. If we can raise $1 million locally, we have a chance to tap into the NLS Matching Million for endowment fund support. Only a buck a Manitoban! We can do it! We are looking into a distance learning model which would feed into the existing delivery system, as one way to reach more people.”

The consultants stated that recurring barriers to literacy improvement (such as rising costs for transportation, child care, materials and facilities) must be addressed through innovative, cost-efficient solutions. We are considering a presentation on the use of television to become our friend, not foe, for the AGM in November.

Please call LPM at 947-5757 with your response to this new direction and to take part in a training session on fundraising techniques.

LPM researching benefits package for literacy workers

A need for a salary review of the literacy field has emerged as a common request from our members in their response to our menu marketing research. Seasoned pracitioners are underpaid for their work as instructors, coordinators, community liaison workers and administrators of evening and day programs for adults of all levels of literacy. Most paid workers cannot do the job in the limited hours they are given; dedicated professionals are supplementing their hours by donating their time as volunteers.

Over the past ten years of involvement in literacy programs, many LPM members have seen a net decrease in their take-home salaries. Professional teachers are surviving on much less than their public school counterparts. University degrees and professional development courses are not taken into consideration in the salary scales. The shortage of teachers has caused many talented literacy workers to abandon the community-based programs in order to return to the classroom where their remuneration doubles or triples. Expertise is lost to the specialized field of adult literacy. Annual increments and merit pay are rare. Most literacy workers are hired on part-time, annual project contracts and have no long term security. Few have the luxury of benefits, pension plans or clerical help.

Talks with various insurance companies have shown positive opportunities to change this dire picture. LPM wanted to follow the lead of the Manitoba Child Care Association in offering tangible benefits to its members. Bob Matthes of Investors Group drew up a survey to see if literacy workers would qualify as an insurable group, for bulk purchasing of long term and short term benefits. The LPM Board will then compare this group rate with the Chambers of Commerce plan and the Family Resource Program package that MCL has negotiated. Options will be examined and a recommendation made to the membership at the AGM.

We need data in order to make estimates of actual costs! Please contact Bob Matthes to participate in the survey if you are a literacy worker who has an annual contract(s) that adds up to at least 18 hours per week. Call 786-2708 or email him at bobmatthes@aol.com by October15, 2000, for a copy of the survey.