Forty years of memorable successes for Yamaska Literacy Council
The Yamaska Literacy Council (YLC), a non-profit organization that works with English-speaking adults and older adolescents in Brome-missisquoi and Haute-yamaska to improve their literary skills, is celebrating 40 years. The group serves an important role and continues to respond to the literary needs of both regions. To highlight the occasion, we spoke to Martha Shufelt, volunteer with the organization since it held its first workshop 40 years ago, and Jennifer Fawcett who is in the midst of planning something special for the group.
Shufelt got involved with YLC when
she realized that her house guest could not read in either English or French.
“I had a young man living with us who spoke English but he had gone to French school and he told me that he read in French but he couldn’t read in English,” explained Shufelt. “My husband makes lists so he would make a list of what he wanted him to do. He came to me and said, ‘the list is in English.’ I said that my husband can write it in French and he said never mind that either just read it to me. I read it to him and he repeated it back to me word for word and this is how he coped with reading in English. I discovered later that he didn’t read French either.”
Shufelt heard about a workshop
being offered by the YLC and decided it was the perfect opportunity. “I had my student sitting right here, wanting to learn to read and write. He learned to read his own lists, but he never stopped relying on his memory; it was an amazing thing to see.”
After attending the first workshop offered by the YLC, Shufelt immediately became part of the organization. “I became part of the organization and I ended up on the board of directors. Ever since, I don’t think I have missed a year, so I have done just about every job there is.”
“There are so many people in Bromemissisquoi who are really below a functioning reading level. They can
sort of function, but the need is there. We try to fill the need but it’s hard to get to people,” Shufelt said.
She added that YLC is unique in the sense that its programs are personalized. “Our involvement in the community is very important, but also our program involves working one-on-one with students, which is very important. A lot of students have gone to school but didn’t succeed in the classroom situation. They need a specific program geared to them. The system that we work with, allows us to work with a student, with their needs, goals and the way they learn. It’s very personal and it works where other programs don’t.”
The YLC figures out a way to work with everyone who needs its services. Shufelt recalls working with one man who was legally blind. He wanted to write the history of his family and he turned to the YLC for help.
“We worked out a system where he wrote a chapter or a few pages. Sometime he would write a few things down – it took him hours to write a page, but he wrote in his head and I would write it down, type it up, read it back to him, and he would make corrections. It was amazing because he did all of this without really being able to see. It’s one way the personalized system adapts. We just made it work. When someone hasn’t learned, it’s because there is something blocking them and it’s finding that block and finding a way around it that works.”
Shufelt said she shares many memories with the YLC, but one in particular that stuck with her happened when she was visiting a restaurant. “I was doing a workshop and stopped at a restaurant. I was trying to see the board with the menu to order my dinner but the sun was shining on it and I couldn’t read it. I asked the waitress if she could read it to me and she said, “these people who can’t read”. I tried to explain to her that I can read, I just can’t see. I felt so awful and tried to explain to everyone in the restaurant that I can read. What a feeling. It sure brought it home to me how people who can’t read are often made to feel.”
With 40 years under her belt, Shufelt has no plans to slow down. “I plan to volunteer with them until I drop. I really miss it especially with the Covid thing. My present student is in jail, but we haven’t been going to jail for a long time and I really miss it. I’ll be glad when it gets back.”
Jennifer Fawcett, who is currently doing her internship with the YLC as a Bishop’s student, has planned something special to highlight the group’s milestone. “We decided to make a video. In class, we did heritage minutes and it was so much fun to make and a challenge to take a big story to put into small little clips. When I was speaking to Wendy (director) we said oh, let’s do a literacy minute rather than a heritage minute and we thought this would actually be something interesting to do.”
Flipping through the archives and speaking to volunteers about their memories, the group hopes to release the video in September. “We are making a timeline of key events that the YLC would like to hear about in a commemorative way so that people can look back on the last 40 years.”
The video is meant to provide something that people can connect to. “People are proud of what they have achieved and what the YLC has achieved over the years and that’s the goal we are working towards all summer.”
There will also be blog posts and social media posts of people’s memories
with the YLC leading up to the video and a podcast episode. “We will put one episode out, it’s really good way to reach people. Literacy Quebec has its own podcast and we will do a podcast with them. That’s very exciting. We are meeting up with them in August and they want to hear about what’s going on with the YLC in 40 years.”
If you’d like to share your experience and memories with the YLC, write to jfawcett20@ubishops.ca.