The Centre for Literacy

News from The Centre
FEBRUARY 2007

The Centre is collaborating with the Montreal Children's Hospital on a Literacy Promotion Project. The long-term goal is to provide books to families of all young children 0 to 6 years who visit or stay at the hospital, and to integrate literacy promotion seamlessly into health care practice. A one-year pilot project to lay the groundwork has been funded by the Alva Foundation with additional funds donated by nurse Jan Larivière from research awards and prizes. Jan has done a research study on reading and neonatal development and has championed this project to reality.

The pilot project will take place in the Hospital's four primary pediatric clinics, including the Neonatal Clinic which follows children at risk for developmental delays after an admission to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Parents and children visiting these clinics will receive books in their mother tongue, a Literacy Promotion bookmark, information about reading and child development, about local resources for books, and about adult literacy or language programs, if appropriate.

The Centre will work with the project committee to develop and offer the staff training and to develop an evaluation framework. Watch our web site for details.

An Expert Panel on Health and Literacy formed by the Canadian Public Health Association (CPHA) is developing a report that offers a framework and recommendations to put health literacy on Canada's federal and provincial agendas for policy and action. They hope the report will be a catalyst for widespread engagement, as the Institute of Medicine (IOM) report on health literacy was in the US. CPHA is holding consultations on the recommendations in selected provinces and expects to have the final report out this spring. Linda Shohet, as a member of this panel, and panelist Mme Lise Renaud, helped organize the Quebec consultation. Watch for the release.

In 2006, to contribute to long-term planning and keep a balance between our local and national programs and projects, The Centre held a community consultation to gather feedback specifically about our role in Quebec. We wanted to know who uses our services and how; we also wanted to know about potential audiences we may not be reaching. We were pleased and overwhelmed by the response. While we had anticipated talking to about 50 people individually and in focus groups, we ended up with more than 90 respondents from across the province. A majority came from the literacy sector, but we included health, the arts, libraries and other sectors with whom we work to integrate literacy.

The results reflected largely positive perceptions of The Centre but also uncovered some unmet needs. We have begun to act on some and will consider those that fall within our mandate in our future planning. A summary of the findings will be available by the end of March on our web site and in print. A print copy can be requested. We thank everyone who responded.