Conference Overview
The Centre for Family Literacy in Edmonton, Alberta is very proud to be hosting this national family literacy conference. The conference will feature a broad range of perspectives on family literacy from Canada, North America and around the world.
Family literacy encompasses the ways parents, children, and extended family members use literacy at home and in their communities. It is an approach to literacy development that recognizes and supports the family as a “learning unit”; it coordinates learning activities among different generations in the same family to build expertise in language development, reading, and writing. Family literacy builds on families’ strengths and connections in the context of the culture and communities in which they live and learn.
This conference provides opportunities to share best practices in programs, to learn about new research in the field, and to connect with others who support and share our dreams and hopes for the families with whom we work.
The goals of the conference include:
- To facilitate the sharing of knowledge and the skill base amongst those working in the field of family literacy and related sectors in Canada and around the world
- To build connections between practitioners and researchers who work in this geographically vast field
The key goal is that delegates will take away new understandings and engaging practices to apply in their home communities.
Welcome from Conference Managers
“Cultivating Connections” refers to the bonds that family literacy builds within families, and in and across communities. It also refers to the connections between research and practice, between practitioners and the families we work with, and between practitioners and researchers, in Canada and around the globe.
This conference marks a milestone for family literacy in Canada. It has been many years since the national family literacy field gathered, and since we invited and joined with those from around the world to exchange perspectives, expertise and resources. Funding from Human Resources and Skills Development Canada has made this conference possible.
Please join us in Edmonton, Alberta in July 2010 for what promises to be an exhilarating and exciting opportunity to share and learn. We look forward to seeing you there!
Kimberley Onclin, Maureen Sanders and Sharon Skage
Managers, Conference Committee
Welcome from Conference Ambassador
It is exciting to welcome all of you to the first family literacy conference of the century in Canada – Cultivating Connections: Global Perspectives & Practices in Family Literacy. This conference will enable you to cultivate connections with a diverse and dynamic family literacy field from around the world and enrich your programs and activities. This event is about sharing and building knowledge, and celebrating what we have all achieved in family literacy in less than a quarter century.
The main theme of the conference –“Cultivating Connections”– reflects the historical development and community practice of family literacy in Canada and many other countries. Literacy practitioners have developed community-based programs through partnerships with community agencies, schools, family serving agencies, universities, and provincial and federal governments. Leaders in family literacy in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, namely the U.K. and U.S.A., generously shared their knowledge and experience to enrich “made in Canada” family literacy programs, strategies, and resources. Canada has caught up with the leaders and has much to share.
For me personally, working with literacy practitioners to develop family literacy programs, strategy, training, resources and promotion was exciting and challenging, and enormously satisfying in these formative years. The leaders in this field had a vision that family literacy could transform the lives of the families involved and they built the tools needed with creativity, sensitivity, and sheer determination that engaged the literacy field. Building partnerships with “non-literacy” organizations and funders was one of the big challenges and enabled us to cultivate diversity in programming and to reach broader populations and integrate family literacy into the mainstream.
From the beginning, adult literacy has been an integral part of family literacy in Canada, based on the belief that parents are a child’s first and most important teacher and role model. Parents are motivated by their desire to increase their children’s skills and success in life, and they also experience changes in their own literacy-related attitudes and skills. Practitioners know that when we work with families as a whole all members of the family benefit!
The Cultivating Connections: Global Perspectives & Practices in Family Literacy conference will showcase programs and program supports, models of practice, practitioner training approaches, research, recruitment strategies, and best practices. The conference brings together an exciting array of national and international speakers who will inspire, stimulate, and invigorate. They will also demonstrate the diversity of family literacy and its rich promise for parents, children, and our society as a whole.
It is the family literacy event of 2010 – don’t miss it!
Yvette Souque
Conference Ambassador
(click here for Yvette's biography)
