Fort Providence workshop inspires participants
Derek Neary
Northern News Services
Fort Providence (Feb 23/01) - Lots of people love bingo, so what about using bingo to promote literacy?
That was one of the ideas that 17 participants in a family literacy workshop in Fort Providence heard last week.
Lorna Nadli, who enrolled in the workshop, said she is now aware that there are many literacy-related activities that will appeal to youth, elders and everyone in between.
"So the community will get together instead of being apart all the time," she said.
Literacy bingo, which would surely grab some people's attention, features spaces with incentives such as reading a book within the past week or reading for at least 15 minutes each day.
"That way people get involved with one another, they're communicating with one another," explained Betty Ann Minoza, who also participated in the workshop.
Minoza noted that people who are illiterate tend to lack self-esteem.
"They shouldn't be ashamed that they don't know how. There's help out there when they want it," she said. "There's different resources out there in the community. They have to go out there and use those resources."
She added that she encourages her nieces and nephews to read and stay in school.
"I always encourage them. In today's world you need more education and training," she said, asserting that the foundation for a good education begins at home.
Nadli, who has children of her own, said she definitely intends to spread the word about the various ways to promote reading and writing.
"I plan to use some of that information with my family and share it with my sisters and their families," she said.
The three-day literacy workshop was co-ordinated by Aurora College and Aboriginal Head Start. Representatives from the NWT Literacy Council acted as facilitators.
Joyce Villeneuve, co-ordinator of the Aboriginal Head Start program, said the proposal writing aspect of the workshop was most beneficial to her.
"I found out that there's a lot of ways to write a proposal, a lot of different formats," she said."The highlight in that was getting funding options. I've got a huge list of funding sources. There's lots of money out there. I didn't know that."
Peter Sabourin, adult basic education literacy program instructor for Aurora College, said there has been talk of forming a literacy group in the community. He's hopeful the workshop will help build momentum towards that goal.
