In 2004, Literacy Alberta and Bow Valley College partnered to develop a two-part training course for practitioners working in the literacy field. The first part of the project involved the design and development of the course and the practicum, while the second part saw the delivery of a pilot of the course to 11 “literacy specialist” participants from 11 different Alberta communities.

The project furthered the work of the “Connecting Literacy to Community” (CLC) project undertaken previously.

After completing 65 hours of training, participants in the pilot program took on the role of literacy specialists for a three-month practicum that saw them working in communities to strengthen knowledge about literacy and positive literacy practices, and to apply their skills and knowledge to train professionals and volunteers. They carried out literacy audits, and conducted workshops on literacy awareness, verbal communication, and plain language.

Feedback on the literacy specialists’ work was positive, with agencies reporting immediate improvements in their attitudes toward and the ways in which they interact with clients. As well, they reported improvements being made to the print materials directed at clients.