2012-2013

The Columbia Basin Alliance for Literacy

Annual Report 2013

CBAL Board of Directors

2012—2013

Dr. Marilyn Petersen, Dean of

Instruction, College of the

Rockies (Board President)

Joanne Richards, Executive Di-

rector, Kootenay Library

Federation

Christy Luke, Instructor, Selkirk

College, Grand Forks

Barbara Morris, retired Assis-

tant Superintendent (Treasurer)

Linda Chell, Executive Director,

Revelstoke Child Care Society

Allison Alder, Chair, School of

Academic Upgrading and Devel-

opment, Selkirk College

David Standing, Principal,

Laurie Middle School

Message from the President Columbia Basin Alliance for Literacy (CBAL) continues to fill a

critical need in the region and has touched the lives of count-

less individuals, families and communities in the Columbia Ba-

sin by recognizing and building on the strengths of individuals.

Thank you to the dedicated volunteers and committed staff who

work so diligently to meet the literacy needs in the communi-

ties they serve. Thank you to the funders who have contributed

so generously and faithfully so that the organization remains

vibrant and effective while being a responsible steward of those

resources. Thank you to the Board members for your thought-

ful leadership and commitment to fostering the growth of

CBAL over many years—it has been my honour to serve on the

Board. Thank you to our many partners—private and public, who share

in the pride of our accomplishments. Together, we are more than the sum

of our parts—we are a caring community.

Highlights of this past year include The Learning Place in Nelson, BC

which is designed to bring people and resources together to create a sus-

tainable learning space. The Learning Place was one of four literacy pro-

grams awarded $5000 from BC Ideas, an online competition to encourage

social innovation in the province. Another highlight was the Learning 4

Life conference held in Nelson in March 2013, which focused on adult

learning and instruction. CBAL’s successful work with newcomers to our

communities through the Welcome BC initiative and the English as a Sec-

ond Language Settlement Assistance Program highlights the broad scope

of the work that CBAL undertakes in the region.

Finally, I want to

acknowledge those indi-

viduals who participate

in CBAL programs and

have the courage to

change their lives—

thank you again for

touching ours.

Dr. Marilyn Petersen

President of the Board

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Contact Us:

1-250-342-3210

extension #7106

www.CBAL.org

CBAL Communities and Literacy Coordinators

Castlegar

Alana Murdoch Cranbrook

Katherine Hough Creston

Linda Steward Elk Valley

Meghan Morton Golden

Monica De Grand Forks Sheila Dobie

Kaslo Barb Szuta Kimberley

Kim Roberts Nakusp and Arrow Lakes

Lisa Bjarnason Nelson

Joan Exley Revelstoke

Tracy Spannier Salmo

Laurie Macdonald Slocan Valley Alison Salo

Trail Sonia Tavares

Valemount Kim Thorn

Windermere Valley Katie Andruschuk

The Columbia Basin Alliance for Literacy

The Columbia Basin Alliance for Literacy was formed in 2001

to increase community capacity to promote and develop litera-

cy skills and life-long learning for all community members.

The underlying philosophy of CBAL is that collaboration and

cooperation are essential to solving community literacy is-

sues.

CBAL’s Community Literacy Coordinators have worked in

collaboration with libraries, school districts, colleges and com-

munity groups to respond to community needs, to build im-

portant community and regional partnerships and to continue

to develop the Columbia Basin Alliance for Literacy as a lead-

er in the field of literacy. CBAL staff below:

CBAL year by numbers:

808 adults in adult programs

2121 adults in family literacy

3881 children in family literacy programs

449 seniors

17,549 books/articles/kits distributed

227 organizations worked with CBAL

744 meetings attended by CBAL’s 16 coordinators

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Learn about literacy programs in your

community by visiting:

www.CBAL.org

Supporting Programs and Staff

CBAL responds to community needs when it develops new

programs or maintains ongoing programs. All coordinators

work with a Community Literacy Advisory Committee to

develop priorities for action. CBAL works with school dis-

tricts to develop District Literacy Plans which are submit-

ted to the Ministry of Education every July.

A variety of literacy programs take place throughout the

Columbia Basin. Programs and activities vary from com-

munity to community depending on other services available

and the amount of funding and support that can be ac-

cessed locally and regionally. Information about programs

in communities across the Columbia Basin and Boundary

can be found at CBAL’s website at www.cbal.org .

CBAL manages six School District Strong Start Centres

which promote early childhood literacy in partnership with

School Districts #5 (Southeast Kootenay), #6 (Rocky Moun-

tain), and #20 (Columbia Kootenay).

CBAL staff are very excited to have established

learning hubs and storefront services in the commu-

nities of Nelson, Creston, Cranbrook, Fernie, Na-

kusp, Salmo, Valemount, Invermere, Golden and

Kimberley.

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CBAL’s Stories 2012-2013 Castlegar adult learner: Charity Balfour, one of our local

ABE learners has a marvelous success story. “I would like

to express my gratitude for CBAL programs at Family

Place. I have two children and needed to upgrade my

work skills in order to re-enter the workplace. My three

year old son had been diagnosed with severe Febrile Sei-

zures and I was hesitant to jump into my re-education.

Someone told me there was a program where they have an

instructor for the parents in one room and provide child-

care in the next room. This was perfect for me! I complet-

ed my upgrades, continued on to an Administrative Skills

class at Selkirk College, completed my practicum at Koote-

nay Family Place and now I am utilizing my skills at a full

time job. I have met so many wonderful people who are

really dedicated to helping. Thank you, thank you – for

the support, guidance and most importantly, for helping

me to gain the confidence that I needed in order to be suc-

cessful.

Castlegar Adult Tutoring: Our longest serving volunteer,

Sylvia Wyllie, was nominated to a Champion for Literacy

award for her 12 years of volunteering. A learner nominat-

ed Gloria Boyle, his tutor as a Champion for Literacy for

all her help and time. Another tutor said “Helping my

learner is very re-

warding. She has

high expectations of

herself so therefore I

must be clear and

concise in my teach-

ing. So whenever she

has an “aha” moment

it brings a smile to

my face! It’s a great

start to my tutoring

experience.

Learning

Together

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Creston Community Bookshare: Books in our Laundromat Bookshare location

just fly off the shelf and few to none are ever brought in. Recently our local

second hand store owner was in and saw that it was low on books, so she went

out to her car and brought in a large number of books from her store supply to

replenish the shelf, all without our asking. Shows that people in the commu-

nity are starting to embrace the idea.

Creston Community and Conversa-

tion ESL classes: At the Russian Tea

party, with a table laid out with

beautiful Russian pastries and cakes

baked by everyone, a samovar and

fancy china teacups, at the appointed

hour 21 adults and 7 children be-

tween 2 and 11 years old, from eight

different countries, arrived, and thus

began two hours of non-stop conver-

sation (mostly in English), storytell-

ing, laughing, eating and drinking

tea, interspersed with children gig-

gling and shrieking, or coming to

their moms to sit on a lap. It was marvelous, exhilarating and exhausting!

Grand Forks: English as a Second Language Instruction - We have such an ec-

lectic class: a new mother from Korea, a business woman from Germany, and a

French lady that likes to dye her hair red and wear wild clothes – to be joined

this spring by a man from Rowanda – in Canada now 15 years and ready to

work towards his citizenship. This makes for a wonderfully diverse class –

with the amazing skills of Shayna – our ESL facilitator orchestrating the

learning! I am very excited about our ESL program that this time last year

was underutilized!

Grand Forks: One to One adult tutoring - We had two very large advance-

ments within this program this year. One learner was able to attend a class-

room upgrading session to help support her home based business. It was a

bookkeeping course and she completed it successfully. This was the first class

room program she had attended since she was 16 years old. She is now 59

years old.

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Kaslo: Youth programs at the library – Librarian’s comment: I

would say the youth programs have opened the library doors to a

whole new group of people. On the whole they’ve been very suc-

cessful as far as the participant numbers and I think they’ve

made the library more complete in that we can now say we have

programming directed towards every age group.

"My learner was happy to be able to apply the phonics rules we

studied to what her daughter was learning at school. She had

said that she was never able to answer the questions her daugh-

ter had about why things were spelled the way they were. After I

explained the rules with the book you gave me, it was like a light

bulb went off for her. It was empowering for her, I think, to final-

ly have some answers that made sense to her daughter. I think

sometimes she feels like she can't help her daughter with her

schoolwork as much as the other parents and this makes her a

bit depressed. You gave me the exact materials that I needed."

Kimberley English as a Second Language Facilitator

Comments:

"Two of our learners from the intermediate/advanced class have

started helping one of the learners from our beginner class. Both

of these students were teachers in their home countries of Korea

and Taiwan and have become amazing 'unofficial'

tutors to our newest refugee from Burma. Both of

these learners have been with the ESLSAP pro-

gram since it started and really wanted to give

back. When they heard about the challenges that

this one particular student was having due to her

lack of formal education, they immediately want-

ed to help."

" Two of our Karen learners from Burma have

just taken their citizenship test! We haven't

heard anything yet, but we have our fingers crossed. They have

been getting help from so many different people in our program.

We are feeling pretty confident that they passed, as difficult as it

was. Studying for this test has been particularly challenging for

these two considering their lack of formal education.”

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"We have a woman from Poland who has been living and

working here for over 20 years. Due to having to work

very hard while trying to raise two children, she has never

learned to read or write in English, although her spoken

communicative skills are quite excellent. Now, with the

help of her new tutor and with the support of her fellow

learners in the intermediate class, she is finally learning

to read and write in English. She's looking forward to be-

ing able to surprise her grandchildren with e-mail and

text messages!"

Nakusp: Seniors’ Computers – “ I am writing to say thank

you for giving me the opportunity to re-educate myself on

learning the computer. I have been a computer user for

many years but like many seniors have gotten lost in all the new technology. I

feel that our village is very fortunate to have this service and all of the volun-

teers who give their time and energy to make the program such a success.”

Nelson Adult Tutoring: “One of our youth learners came to us with many nega-

tive experiences around education and learning. She has lived on her own for

some time and at 19 is now trying to finish her high school diploma. She had a

hard time staying committed to working with her tutor and had to re-start in

the program twice. However, now she has found a course she can handle and is

not looking at learning in such a negative way. She has managed to meet with

her tutor now four times in a row without missing her appointments. She has a

better outlook on her life and is less stressed about where her future is going.

Together with her social worker and our program we are able to support a

youth who beforehand had no direction and was full of anxiety about how to go

forward with her goals.”

“We have just welcomed a new learner into our program who is being assisted

by two other agencies in the area. He came to have a better life here in Canada.

He has experienced great difficulties with his time here. He is determined, how-

ever, to get the skills he needs to get a job. It is amazing to me to meet people

who are facing so many barriers but still remain hopeful. The fact that he is

seeking help and setting goals means those working with him have a frame-

work to build on even if it will take many agencies and service providers to get

him the help he needs.”

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First Nations Welcome at

Learning 4 Life in Nelson

Strategic Planning

In May, 2013 CBAL staff and Board members gathered in

Creston to complete strategic planning for 2013-2016. We are

well on our way to accomplishing the goals we have set for our-

selves. The following goals were identified for the 2013-2016

timeframe.

1. Sustain and further develop local programming across

age groups.

2. Strengthen regional support for local community

work.

3. Build resilience and support retention.

CBAL provided training and workshops in a number of areas

including English as a Second Language training, volunteer

management, and family literacy. A highlight was our March

Learning for Life conference in Nelson which focused on adult

learning.

CBAL staff continue to be leaders in the literacy field developing

materials and programs others wish to share across the country

and around the world.

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Literacy Awareness Activities

CBAL wants to honour those who have made a significant contribution to

literacy in their communities through their Champion for Literacy events.

A champion can be an individual, service group organization or business.

Reach a Reader events in October were very successful. We are very grate-

ful for the support of Black Press in promoting literacy and partnering in

this fun and rewarding fundraiser. Pictured below are Reach a Reader

supporters and volunteers in Trail and Nelson and a Champions for

Literacy presentation in Grand Forks.

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CBAL coordinators added

value to their community

budgets. Community sup-

port was demonstrated by:

$338,119.00 “in-Kind”

$302,068.00 through local

grants

Approximately 75% of

CBAL grant revenue is

raised through regional

grants which are dispersed

so that each community

has the core funds it needs

to provide an equitable lev-

el of service.

Funds remaining will be

allocated to communities

for the 2013-2014 program

year.

CBAL’s Financial Report 2012-2013

Revenues

Grant Revenue 1,954,206.00

Fees for Services 160,539.00

Fund raising 16,639.00

Interest 13,369.00

Donations and Memberships 4,188.00

Rent recoveries and workshops 4,356.00

Total revenues 2,153,297.00

Expenses

Literacy programs 1,078,649.00

Coordination costs 443,319.00

Administration 176,449.00

Capacity Building 191,519.00

Contributions to other orgs 11,033.00

Total Expenses 1,900,969.00

(Figures from latest audit, October, 2013)

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Special Thanks The Columbia Basin Alliance for Lit-eracy relies on the generous sup-

port of many organizations, groups and individuals who contribute their time, energy and funding to further

the cause of literacy in the Colum-bia Basin.

In 2012-2013, we were grateful to receive funding from:

The Columbia Basin Trust The BC Ministry of Advanced

Education BC Gaming Commission Decoda Literacy Solutions College of the Rockies Sekirk College School District #5 School District #6 School District #8 School District #10 School District #19 School District #20 Success by Six PostMedia – Raise a Reader Pacific Community Networks Local community foundations,

businesses, organizations and agencies Literacy work throughout the Co-lumbia Basin could not be as effec-

tive or extensive without the gener-ous support of the following organi-zations and people:

Members of the Community Literacy Advisory Committees who have

spent considerable time and energy thinking about their communities and the literacy needs of individu-

als, lending their

experience and expertise, and

believing that even small groups of committed people can make a difference.

The Columbia Basin Trust, which has provided funding over a peri-

od of eleven years, giving com-munities sufficient resources to develop programs and foster

growth. College of the Rockies, which

provides administrative support and is joined by Selkirk College, and Okanagan College, in provid-

ing support for adult literacy pro-grams. They continue to believe in the importance of basic skills

development for everyone.

Decoda Literacy Solutions, which continues to fund a provincial ini-

tiative to have a community working together to ensure lit-erate and compassionate com-

munity development. Public Libraries who have part-

nered with CBAL to provide a va-riety of programs including Books for Babies with the assistance of

Public Health Nurses. All of the literacy workers and

volunteers, adult and family, whose dedication to and passion for their communities and the

people in them have made a dif-

ference in the lives of many.

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CONTACT US

Ali Wassing

Executive Director Tel: (250) 342-3210 #7108

Fax: (250) 342-9221 awassing@cbal.org

Heather Hayward

Administrator Tel: (250)-342-3210 #7106

Fax: (250) 342-9221 hhayward@cbal.org

Regional Managers

Selkirk College Region:

Desneiges Profili dprofili@cbal.org

(250)512-1249

College of the Rockies Region:

Betty Knight bknight@cbal.org

(250)346-3248 (phone-fax)

www.CBAL.org

1-250-342-3210

CBAL’s work in the communities of the Columbia

Basin and Boundary engages people of all ages in

the business of literacy development.

Our communities embrace a culture of learning and

are stronger and more resilient as a result.

.