• One Career Centre we spoke with said that 25% of their 1200 clients each year have low levels of literacy, and that another 50-60% have less than grade 12. Many others cited literacy as a pervasive issue – and one of the reasons they lose clients.

• Community support for literacy often takes the form of charity – in the form of donations from “in kind” services (eg. helicopter flights, santa services, etc.) or charitable events (eg. bingo).

• There appears to be a disconnect between the notion of literacy as a socio-economic investment and literacy as a philanthropic concept. In one community, for example, people described the attitude of local employers as being that their workers are replaceable and that there is no incentive to invest in skills development. At the same time, though, they described these employers as very willing to support the local community literacy association – because it’s a “good cause”.

• One community described literacy as being the “secret” in the community – even though it is significant enough to be clearly identified in their Community Economic Development Plan.

It Has Begun to Be Recognized as Such…

BC Leaders’ Survey

“Is the issue of literacy relevant to your organization?”

A significant majority of respondents across all categories described literacy as relevant to their organization.

BC Leaders’ Survey

“If so, in what way?”

Among the 85% who said it was relevant to their organization (and offered an explanation as to why), over half of their responses mentioned the need for a literate workforce. Understandably, this was the overwhelming response on the part of business and labour respondents. Educators and workforce literacy practitioners and, to a lesser extent, community development workers described it as being relevant because it’s directly related to their own work.