“The government needs to recognize that clients have low life skills and low literacy. A combination program that addresses both needs to be created.” – Government representative during Consultation

• Community-based literacy organizations are able to serve a diverse clientele – many of whom do not want to go to school or have specialized goals that going to school wouldn’t address. As well, some have time management or mental health issues. Drop in centers and tutoring programs build up their skills and their confidence and ease them onto more formal education – if that is what they want. It is an excellent “bridging” service.

• Learning centers recognize that the literacy issue is intertwined with other issues: family problems, communication, anger management, financial management, lifeskills, time management, and community participation. Some centers offer workshops, small groups, speaking groups, and writing circles. They provide learner support in groups and this is very beneficial because it stops the isolation so many of them are experiencing.

• Learning centers are useful in that they can respond to different needs. They can provide a place where one can “prepare to be successful” and a place to go “to change lifestyles”. However, these are difficult to measure statistically. Unfortunately, though, it is often these measures that funders ask for – and it is why the existence of many learning centers is tenuous.

• Learning centers need to be resourced well enough to respond to the needs of low literacy clients. They say they need significant one-on-one time with their tutors – yet several learning centers we visited had ratios as high as 50 students to one instructor.

• Learning centers also need more resources and venues to keep in touch with other tutors so they can share knowledge, help each other, and talk through frustrations. They often respond to a very diverse clientele and it is challenging to train tutors to meet these diverse needs.

• Laubach tutors and staff instruct learners how to improve their basic and functional skills in reading, writing, numeracy, spelling and other lifeskills. The instruction is free, confidential, and adapted to the personal goals of each learner.

• College-based Volunteer Adult Literacy Tutoring (VALT) programs are reported as being particularly successful in helping individuals meet their unique goals.

• However, expectations around Laubach, VALT, and other tutoring programs are often unrealistic. It takes considerable time for a literacy student to get up to a college level. Students – who may attend two tutoring classes a week – don’t fully understand what time it will take to get to their goal. For people with learning disabilities, the distance is even farther.

• Some expressed the view that Community Skills Centers could play a greater role in literacy programming and basic skills upgrading in that they are community-based. They are comfortable places for the everyday person, offer independent study, are supportive, and are often conveniently located in a downtown storefront. Others expressed the view that Community Skills Centers are more suited for delivering pre-employment, job-related and technical training on a quick-response basis. In that and other respects, every community we visited was different.