Outreach Package for Social Agency Staff

The Ottawa Community Coalition for Literacy (OCCL) and the adult literacy
program ALSO, Alternative Learning Styles and Outlooks, hope this
Outreach Package will support your outreach strategy and save you
preparation time. It is intended for use by literacy professionals who want to
inform social agency staff about the issue of literacy and promote adult
literacy programs in their region.

We hope that, by sharing this information with agency staff, they will
become more knowledgeable and understanding about the issues affecting
people with low literacy skills and that they will know who to contact if their
clients express an interest in improving their literacy skills.

The Outreach Package will help agency staff learn more about the
importance of literacy. It shows the extent of literacy problems and
illustrates the impact this has on people’s lives. It also describes some of the
barriers facing people contemplating a return to education. There are
suggestions for recognizing literacy issues and descriptions of the types of
adult literacy programs that are available.

The Outreach Package is in three parts.

Part One – Making Contact with Social Agencies describes a protocol for making the initial contact. Facilitators will want to meet with a staff person from the agency to encourage agency staff to learn more about literacy issues and types of literacy programs in order to better help their clients.

Part Two – Literacy Awareness Presentation contains suggestions for an oral presentation to staff in social agencies. Facilitators can choose from suggested topics or substitute their own based on the available time. Click here for a 30 Minute Sample Presentation Agenda. If you are doing a longer presentation, refer to the main document.

Part Three – Literacy Information for Social Agency Staff contains written information that should be given to agency staff. Facilitators may want to suggest agencies incorporate this handout into their orientation package for new staff.

OCCL gratefully acknowledges the National Literacy Secretariat, Human Resources Development Canada and the Workplace Preparation Branch, Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities who provided funding for this project. October 2002