Literacy B.C. - Newsletter - September 2000

News from Literacy BC ...cont’d

A major focus for our work this year will be on the province-wide Consultation on Literacy, shaping specific recommendations for future literacy strategies in BC, which will move literacy concerns and actions much further and deeper across the whole province, and the conference, Setting an Agenda for Tomorrow.

In addition to these major activities, we will continue with the following:

>	increasing public awareness and support for literacy
>	supporting adult learners
>	building and supporting literacy research capacity and activities in BC
>	developing and supporting family literacy development in B.C.
>	providing leadership and support to the BC electronic conferencing and communications system and to the interprovincial electronic conferencing system
>	supporting and coordinating the regional literacy networks
>	providing professional development training
>	developing and supporting workforce literacy initiatives in BC
>	management of the Literacy Materials Bulletin and the provincial Literacy Resource Centre

For more detailed information, visit our website at: www.nald.ca/lbc.htm

2000 Canada Post Literacy Award Winners
l to r: Connie De Melo; Sally Gellard, Educator Award;
Joan Jarman and Dave Sherwood, Prince George Public Library,
Community Leadership Award; Karen Taylor, Educator award.

Double Award Winner... Connie DeMelo

After 10 years, Connie De Melo is still excited about learning. The 69 year old Castlegar grandmother and Selkirk College ABE student was honored this fall as B.C. winner of The Cooperators Learner Achievement Award and the Canada Post Individual Literacy Achievement Award.

Connie received both awards at the Canada Post ceremony in Nanaimo on September 13. (see photo).

Connie, born in Portugal, moved to Canada with her husband 37 years ago. She raised a son, now 40, and a daughter, now 35, and has two grandchildren.

One of three brothers and four sisters, Connie says, “I was sick as a small child and never went to school. I learned how to be a dressmaker and a tailor in Portugal, and made my own patterns, though I could not read,” she says. “I learned how to sign my name when I came to Canada.”

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