January 2005

Family Literacy Partnership

Sharbot Lake and Kingston Literacy

SHARBOT LAKE

Northern Connections Adult Learning program has been very busy in the past few months developing relationships and seeking funding to help move family literacy partnerships forward.

One of their proposed ideas is to work with Share the Stories, the Early Literacy Specialist, the Early Years Centre and a local Medical Centre to put a story corner in the medical centre manned by volunteers part-time.

They have also received funding from Industry Canada’s Eastern Ontario Development Fund for a needs determination study focusing on “what parents of school-age children want/need as helps to support their children’s literacy and school issues”. To do this, they will be partnering with the Early Years Centre, local schools, parent associations and other literacy providers. A youth intern will be hired who will create questionnaires and surveys, host workshops, facilitate focus groups and network within the community. A strategic plan will also be developed.

Thanks to the work that this busy literacy program and its partners have already accomplished, mothers in the community are starting to advocate on their own behalf and have started a support group for local single mothers with several literacy learners taking a lead role. For more information about any of these initiatives, contact Joyce Bigelow at literacy@frontenac.net.

KINGSTON LITERACY

Yet another partnership is led by Kingston Literacy which hires people in rural areas like Sharbot Lake to deliver RAPP packs and bookmaking courses during regularly-scheduled playgroup time. The local Early Years Centre provides childcare, space and participants. For more information about how this partnership works, contact Susan Leslie at ccc@frontenac.net.

RAPP stands for “Reading and Parents Program”. It was developed by Kingston Literacy in 1990, when the first RAPP packs were assembled. Each pack contains a book suitable for a child between two-andhalf and five years old. The pack also contains: tips for parents on how to use the pack; a craft idea and materials; a selection of poetry; and activity sheets. Everything in the pack relates to the theme of the story.

Throughout the 1990’s, Kingston Literacy gradually developed more RAPP material, adding to their RAPP titles each year. To share this resource with others, in 2000 Kingston Literacy published a series of four photocopiable books containing all the materials needed to assemble thirty-eight RAPP packs. Individual programs supply the corresponding children’s books and materials to make the craft. The RAPP Spring and Fall Collection and the RAPP Winter and Summer Collection are based on children’s books with seasonal themes. The RAPP Classics Collection includes such classics as Three Little Pigs and Franklin in the Dark, and the RAPP Holidays Collection includes books with holiday themes.

You can order these materials from their website at www.kingstonliteracy.com. Click on the “FOR SALE” link at the left side of the page to see all of the resources they have available.