Think of February – think of passion, hearts, and love.

Think of anyone involved in literacy – think of passion, hearts, and love. The jobs that we initially liked are now jobs that we love. We are passionate about our work and strive to find ways to help learners achieve their goals.

CALP staff have the biggest hearts, managing to do everything that is involved in their multi-layered positions.

And so are our fantastic Regional Support Staff across the province. Need help? Just call them. They are diggers, finding out what we need to know, supporting us in our work, and being there when needed.

Although the name changes from time to time – currently the Indigenous and Community Connections Branch Advanced Education - what doesn’t change is the enthusiasm and passion of all of the government CALP team.

I see the passion of my fellow CLN Board members and the rest of the CLN team, committed to investing their time and energy for the community adult learning programs across the province.

Passion, big hearts, and love from all involved in this literacy and foundational learning work is positive and impactful; it changes lives! As Roberto Benigni said in the movie “Life is Beautiful”

La vita e bella; la vita e amore.
Life is beautiful; life is love.

Thank you, everyone, for helping make life beautiful for so many learners. Happy February, and a special Valentine’s Day!

Lil Radley, Secretary
CLN Board of Directors

From the Executive Director

You might have noticed a slight increase in activity on the Portal over the past month… and if you haven’t – you might want to check it out!

We’ve added a number of new regional training opportunities throughout the province on the Training and Events Calendar. We aspire to offer training to meet the needs of CALP Staff in a location near you, so check back regularly as we’re still adding more spring training activities. In addition to training coordination, we have nearly finalized the 2017 Literacy and Learning Symposium schedule for September. If that wasn’t enough to keep you busy – we’re excited about launching two more e-Learning workshops now and another one later this month. The great thing about these workshops is that they are available 24/7 and will fit your learning pace and availability.

Want to know more about what we’ve been up to? Keep reading, we’ve got a lot to share in this edition of Connections!

Lisa Dickner
Executive Director

Provincial Training Surveys: Thank You!

Last month, CLN began collecting additional feedback to help us measure the impact and outcomes of PD mechanisms and initiatives funded through the provincial professional development system for CALP. If you attended last year's Literacy and Learning Symposium, or attended training in your region that was coordinated or hosted by CLN between August and November last year, you probably received an email or two, asking for your feedback.

Our goal with these additional surveys is to gather information that paints a better picture of how these events serve and support you (or don't) over time.

We had a great response rate to our surveys, and your thoughtful comments are invaluable not only to our evaluation of past events, but also to our planning of future training and events. Here's just a taste of what we are hearing so far:

Regional Training Survey

Have you integrated learnings from this training into your practice?

82% of you said yes! Some examples you gave included:

Rhymes that Bind training: "Once I received this training as a coordinator, we were able to offer a Rhymes that Bind family literacy program where 4 families have attended. When my facilitator was sick I was able to take over and facilitate so we did not have to cancel the program."

Introduction to Adult Foundational Learning: "I found that I am asking more information probing questions to the adults that are utilizing our programs such as basic computers.  It helps to put the correct perspective on where a client is at (learning challenges) and directing them on the correct path."

You also commented on the value of having more regional delivery:

"Appreciated the training in the community as a stand-alone offering that I could travel to and be home in the evenings."
"It was awesome that this training was offered here. The location was a lot more accessible to me than taking it in Edmonton!"

Literacy & Learning Symposium 2016 Survey

Have you integrated learnings from training at the 2016 Symposium into your practice?

80% of you said yes! Some examples include:

"We have programmed a book club to start in February. We will be using many of the practices and resources discussed at the session from the Symposium."

"We have started using the CLN database."

"Working on improving and increasing Learner Support Services thanks to the fantastic presentation and materials from other CALPs that are focusing on this."

Are you using ideas you have learned or heard about from others at the 2016 Symposium?

83% of you said yes! Some examples include:

"We have begun looking into alternative funding using ideas that were shared with us at the Symposium."

"Working on a community dialogue now. Was able to talk to others who had done a community dialogue already."

"The primary value I get from attending Symposium is connecting and networking with others. I always come away with new ideas and/or feedback from CALPs and others in my region about how to improve services and relationships."

Thank you to everyone who has replied to our surveys. If you haven't had a chance to submit your input yet, please do. We are extending the deadline for both surveys to Friday, February 10th. If you attended an event, but didn't receive the survey(s) by email, please contact the CLN at office@calp.ca and we will send you the links to have your say!

New e-Learning on the CALP Portal

This week we are adding to the e-learning workshops available on the CALP Portal! Be sure to log in to your Portal account and click over to the e-Learning tab to check them out.

Learner Support Services

Learner Support Services are all those things you do to help adult learners achieve personal success in their individual learning and life goals. Learner Support Services is a very broad term that means something different to almost everyone, and includes providing access to a variety of resources, services, and referrals for your learners.

This workshop explains some of the key elements of providing great Learner Supports, from building strong partnerships and networks in your community, how to help learners navigate your Comprehensive Community Institution, all the way to tips and tricks for marketing your programs and reaching new learners.

Essential Skills

Essential skills are part of our everyday life. For CALP staff, being able to identify which essential skills a learner needs to use to complete a task can be a really great way to help learners in their everyday life and support them in their learning journey.

This new workshop will walk you through what each of the 9 essential skills is, how to understand complexity levels of the skills, and how they are built into almost any task at home, in learning, or in the workplace.

This great diagram is just one of the resources that are free to download from all our e-Learning workshops (click to view full screen):

Other workshops are available under the e-Learning tab on the CALP Portal:

Outcomes-based Measurement and Evaluation for the Community Adult Learning Program

CALP Financial Management

Reminder: You must log in with your CALP Portal account to access the e-Learning workshops.

Provincial Family Literacy Review Project

The Family Literacy Ad Hoc Committee was created as a sub-committee of the Professional Development Advisory Committee (PDAC) to review family literacy in the context of the CALP system. The committee is made up of the organizations that offer training as well as other representatives from family literacy providers.

Through this project, funded by Advanced Education and managed by Centre for Family Literacy, an external consultant will be reviewing the current approved models in family literacy. By looking at where family literacy programs align with the CALP Program guidelines, logic model and outcome measures, as well as where the training aligns with the Professional Development Logic Model, we hope to get a clear picture of where there is already alignment and where there may be room for stronger alignment as well as development of new training and programs to meet any identified needs.

Things are getting started and they are going to be moving quickly. Our consultant, Ed Marchak, may be connecting with some of you over the next few months to talk about your experiences with training and programs. We thank you for your input in advance!

Kim Chung
Acting Co-Executive Director
Centre for Family Literacy

2017 Literacy & Learning Symposium Keynote: Drew Hayden Taylor

The Planning Committee for the 2017 Literacy & Learning Symposium has been hard at work building a program for this year's event that will include some great sessions, new collaborative learning and plenty of networking opportunities. In fact, this year we had so many great proposals for training opportunities and breakout sessions that it was hard work to pick only the best! We are just in the process of confirming all the sessions and speakers, and we are excited to launch registration in March this year.

In the meantime, to whet your appetite, we are delighted to announce one of our confirmed keynote speakers.

Be sure to be at the Symposium in Edmonton on Wednesday, September 27th to hear:

Drew Hayden Taylor

Drew Hayden Taylor is an award winning playwright, novelist, journalist and filmmaker. He has done everything from performing stand-up comedy at the Kennedy Centre in Washington D.C. to being Artistic Director of Canada's premiere Native theatre company, Native Earth Performing Arts. From the Curve Lake First Nation in Central Ontario, he has just celebrated the launch of his 30th book, a play titled CREES IN THE CARIBBEAN.

Stay tuned to Connections, and keep up to date on the CALP Portal.... More exciting programming announcements will be coming soon!

And you if haven't already, make sure you

Save the Dates!

Literacy & Learning Symposium 2017

Dates: Monday, September 25 to Friday, September 29, 2017

Location: DoubleTree by Hilton, West Edmonton
16615 109th Avenue North West, Edmonton, Alberta, T5P 4K8

Big News from Momentum: New Lower Fee for Training

Great News from Momentum! As of January 2017, the registration fee to take this 2-day workshop is now only $175.00.

Momentum’s curriculum contains five core modules and accompanying facilitators’ guides: Budgeting, Assets, Banking, Credit/Debt Management and Consumerism. The training also covers facilitation skills, adult learning principles and best practices. Participants will receive a Financial Literacy binder that includes the five participant modules; five corresponding facilitators’ guides; adult learning principles, facilitator tips and more! You will also receive a USB stick with participant modules and copies of all handouts used throughout the training. Everyone who completes the training receives a Certificate of Completion.

CLN has purchased licenses for Momentum’s Financial Literacy curriculum and materials that will cover CALPs in each Region, so the only cost to your CALP is the fee for the face-to-face training.

The next Momentum training coming up will be in St Paul on March 7th and 8th. Click here for more information and to register at the new reduced fee!

Pearls of Wisdom from the Field

Last month, we launched our "Pearls of Wisdom" contest to celebrate Community Learning Network's 30th anniversary. We are looking for 30 of the best Pearls of Wisdom from Alberta's CALP Community. We will feature these Pearls throughout the year in newsletters, on the CALP Portal, and of course as part of the celebrations at our 30th Annual General Meeting on September 27th in Edmonton.

And our first winner is....

"There are so many ways to ask for help in our positions whether it be posing a question on the portal, asking a neighboring CALP, your Regional Support person or with Advanced Education or the CLN directly (all of which I have done and continue to do!) I have found all methods will generate helpful and friendly answers and have always provided me with encouragement and support and pearls of wisdom…!"

Melanie Patenaude,
County of Lethbridge Community Learning Council

To share your Pearl of Wisdom, email Odette at news@calp.ca with the word "Pearl" in the subject line. If your submission is featured, we will send you a special token of appreciation. That's right - there are prizes to be won!

2017 Council of the Federation Literacy Award Nominations Open!

The 2017 call for nominations is now open!

The Council of the Federation Literacy Award was created in 2004 by Canada's Premiers to recognize literacy achievements in every province and territory. The award recognizes outstanding achievement, innovative practice, and excellence in literacy.

Alberta has celebrated the achievements of learners and educators in the areas of community, family, Indigenous, and workplace literacy. This year Alberta will continue to honour the hard work and commitment of a community organization that is helping adults to acquire and build on the foundational learning skills they need to be future-ready.

Alberta is full of outstanding community literacy organizations. Help us celebrate and recognize the work and leadership of an organization by completing and submitting a nomination package.

Nominations close April 18, 2017.

Quote of the Day

People underestimate their capacity for change.
There is never a right time do a difficult thing.

– John Porter