Fill up on flapjacks for literacy
Community-minded Kelowna residents can help support the cause of wider literacy Thursday at a pancake breakfast hosted by The Daily Courier.
For a donation of $5, you can get a full breakfast as well as a complimentary copy of the paper from 7:30 to 10 a.m. We are located at 550 Doyle Ave. in downtown Kelowna.
Thanks to our presenting sponsor, Kal Tire, all proceeds from the event will be used to support community-based literacy programs run by Project Literacy Kelowna.
This is a come-and-go event, so stop in whenever it’s convenient for you to do so.
Through a partnership with Postmedia, the B.C. government will also provide a top-up for all funds raised at the pancake breakfast.
“This means you can double the impact in the community with your donation,” said Christine McWillis, executive director of Project Literacy Kelowna.
Project Literacy Kelowna matches learners, either Canadian-born or new to the country, with trained volunteer tutors to provide free one-onone English and math literacy tutoring.
At any time, Project Literacy Kelowna has more than 100 active tutor-learner matches.
Arguably the first and biggest rite of passage for children is their entrance into kindergarten and the institutionalized world of learning that will ultimately determine their success in life.
It is, therefore, also a considerable time of stress for parents, who want the best for their kids but may have little understanding of what goes on in kindergarten and how to prepare for it. The sense of unease may be even more acute for immigrant families who are fully occupied making a new home for themselves and whose understanding of schooling differs from the Canadian system.
Ideally, parents should have a clear understanding of what is expected of their children, along with tools to ensure that they transition smoothly and productively from the home to the institutional setting. That is precisely why the Parents as Literacy Supporters (PALS) program has become so valued throughout British Columbia.
Administered by Decoda Literacy Solutions, PALS provides parents and caregivers with strategies to support their preschool and kindergarten-aged children’s learning in fun and interactive ways. Through a series of 10 two- to three-hour sessions in schools and community centres, family members learn how to support their children’s learning and literacy, as well as build social networks with each other and with teachers and administrators.
Aliza Dhungana, program manager for Decoda, says: “PALS facilitators give the adult participants content and structure to prepare their children for learning. A typical session will include discussions about literacy and what is expected of children in kindergarten. Meanwhile, children in the sessions interact separately with early child educators and are exposed to basic concepts such as ABC learning, rhymes and other educational processes. There is also lots of play between the parent or caregiver and the children.”
Dhungana goes on to note the inevitable outcome of these sessions is an enhanced interaction between the parent or caregiver and the child.
“Parents find they can better and more easily communicate with their kids and ask teachers more thoughtful questions about learning.”
The PALS in Immigrant Communities (IPALS) program is similarly structured, with the exception that the facilitators either speak in the language native to the participants or are paired with someone who can translate.
PALS’ genesis dates back to the late 1990s, when primary school teacher Fiona Morrison and assistant school superintendent Jim Anderson, both of whom were heavily involved in family literacy initiatives, were invited by Langley’s mayor at the time, Marlene Grinnell, to become part of a literacy program for an innercity region with a highly transitory, low-income population. Morrison and Anderson developed sessions with parents, caregivers, early childhood educators and administrators, and piloted them in two inner-city Langley schools in 2000.
The initial success led to expansion into two inner-city Vancouver schools the following year.
“News of the program soon got out and we began to respond, first to the Prince Rupert area of B.C., and then throughout the province and to other areas of Canada, and to other countries, including Switzerland and Uganda,” recalls Morrison.
With the support of school boards and the provincial government, PALS quickly evolved to respond to the needs of diverse communities. Today, it is available in more than 200 locations in the province.
IPALS, which was piloted in 2008, is funded by Citizenship and Immigration Canada and private donors. It boasts 37 programs in languages including Punjabi, Farsi, Somali and Cantonese.
A third program, Aboriginal PALS, was piloted in 2010. It operates in consultation with elders and other aboriginal community leaders.
PALS’ effectiveness is such that parents who undertook the program to prepare one child for kindergarten typically return several years later with their younger offspring.
“Word of mouth is huge,” says Dhungana.
Typical is the experience of Yan Sun, who enrolled her daughter in IPALS shortly after moving to B.C. She says that after attending the program, “my daughter has great interest in learning: she likes to read the entire take-home book and the magnetic alphabets on the fridge every day. She also learned lots of English words through the program.”
Moreover, says Sun, “I made some friends and we share parenting techniques. The program creates a welcoming environment to newcomers like us.”
Dhungana, who came to Canada from Nepal in 2010 completely unaware of the Canadian way of life, says: “Had I been in IPALS, we would have definitely been able to adapt faster; but now, at least, I can give this chance to other new Canadians.”