Two organizations are partnering to offer literacy programs to Indigenous elders, including those who endured residential school.
Eagle Feather Literacy and Literacy Central Vancouver Island have developed a literacy program with money from the Peter Gzowski Foundation for Literacy in the foundation’s first national granting project, First Nations elders Linda Jack and Norman Mitchell announced in a press release.
Jack hopes the partnership will lead to more funding, as the group utilizes “advanced systems in literacy training.”
“We want to share stories of how we were robbed of our education then, and our efforts to regain lost time in receiving an education now, in spite of the suffering brought on by the residential and day school systems of the past,” she said in the press release.
Melanie Page, Literacy Central Vancouver Island literacy coordinator, said her group will work with programming developed by Jack, Mitchell and their team.
“Many residential school survivors have not achieved a literacy level high enough to even enter adult basic education programs,” Page said in the press release. “We’re excited to help these adult learners reach their goals. Central to our approach is a learning program that is trauma-informed and culturally appropriate.”
Nanaimo was one of 10 communities in the country receiving money from the Gzowski foundation, the press release stated.
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karl.yu@nanaimobulletin.com
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