e-northwest
Regional Electronic Networking

e-northwest is a unique collaboration among the four western provinces, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut.

e-northwest will:

• provide the literacy fields in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Nunavut and the NWT with pilot electronic conferencing services
• offer these pilot projects access to existing information, expertise, and technical resources in Alberta and B.C.
• build a collaborative, cooperative electronic network among the western provinces and the territories that develops shared conferencing through electronic gateways
• provide a model for future development of a national electronic conferencing infrastructure and effective, long-range strategic planning at the national level.

To find out more about e-northwest, contact: Sandy Middleton, Literacy BC Information and Communications Coordinator SMiddleton@TheHub.bc.ca. The partners in the e-northwest project are: Alberta Association for Adult Literacy, Coalition for Brandon Community Services, Literacy BC, Nunavut Literacy Council, NWT Literacy Council, and Saskatchewan Literacy Network.

e-northwest is funded by the National Literacy Secretariat, Human Resources Development Canada.

Health Help by Phone

The Ministry of Health has a new service helpful for people who have low literacy skills or visual impairments.

They have developed a series of 120 Recorded Health Files that can be heard over the telephone to give callers information on public and environmental health issues. The Health Files are a series of short, easy to understand fact sheets developed by the Ministry over the last decade and are widely used by public and preventive health workers throughout the province. They provide information about many childhood and adult diseases, food safety, environmental hazards, problems with pests, and other health matters. The recordings are clear and easy to understand.

Here is a sample of just some of the topics callers can listen to: dental care, E-coli, food safety, outdoor health risks, pregnancy, nutrition, vaccinations, and water disinfection.

To listen to the recorded Health Files.
Call 1-877-660-2628 toll-free or 660-2628, in Greater Vancouver or visit www.health.gov.bc.ca/hlthfile.