Celebrating success at Literacy Council annual meeting
Deborah Powell
Western Quebec Literacy Council (WQLC) Executive Director Michèle Gagnon presented Student Perseverance Awards to Jessica Plamandon and Malissa Johnson at the Annual General Meeting held in Aylmer, October 20. Pictured right is Jessica’s tutor, Rick Valin, recipient of the Freda Hudson Award presented annually by Literacy Quebec to an active, longstanding volunteer who has made a “remarkable” contribution to literacy.
Board President Deborah Powell outlined some of the achievements of the year: “The WQLC has had another great year of growth and change. We set out goals at the Strategic Planning session in November and are well on our way to achieving our priorities. For example, additional funding has been secured for the human resources needed to update both content and method of delivery of our Tutor Training. And while our target audience is the adult learner, WQLC has been very present in the area of family literacy throughout the year and will continue that work. You could say we’re trying to put ourselves out of business some time in the future! However, in the short term, our activities in that area help to increase our visibility in the community, while encouraging the adults in the family to make sure they can keep up with their kids!”
“In the near future, we are definitely going to need more volunteer tutors in the Aylmer/Hull area as we develop our partnership with the Adult Education Centre, part of our Gatineau Outreach project,” explained Gagnon. “We will be looking to fill part-time paid positions as well for outreach and to work on the tutor training program.”
Guest speaker at the meeting was Linton Garner, Regional Association of West Quebecers Executive Director. Garner identified key areas that will require coordinated attention from the English-speaking community given the election of the new provincial government. He urged everyone to get involved in clearly expressing the needs and desires of their communities to their MLAs.
The Western Quebec Literacy Council assists adults to upgrade essential skills including reading, writing, math, oral communication and computer use.
Students set the pace and goals for their own learning, working one-on-one with a volunteer tutor. Tutor support, with training, teaching materials and ongoing support from our staff, helps to ensure the effectiveness of tutoring sessions.
