Our Mission

The purpose of the Society is to promote literacy and numeracy in English in Parksville, Qualicum Beach and the surrounding area of Vancouver Island, BC.  To do this, the Society will:

  • support instruction and help provide supporting materials to adults needing assistance with English literacy and numeracy,
  • support volunteer tutors in acquiring the knowledge and requisite skills in tutoring adult learners, and
  • collaborate with other organizations, as appropriate, in support of the Society’s purpose.

Our Immediate Priorities

Our first priority is to ensure the sustainability and quality of CVIJOBS – The Tutoring Program by providing funds for:

  • a part-time program assistant to support the coordinator in day-to-day details of administration and tutor and learner support,
  • an additional co-ordinator so that one co-ordinator can focus on developing and delivering the adult literacy program for native speakers of English while the other will do the same for ESL learners, and
  • additional office space.

Our Longer-term Priorities

In the longer term, we plan to develop and fund additional programs to support the literacy needs of adult learners and the needs of volunteer tutors in our community.  This may include:

  • establishing an English-as-a-Second Language (ESL) language lab,

  • developing one-on-one tutoring programs in the workplace,

  • expanding and updating the teaching and learning resources available to tutors and learners, and

  • providing additional adult literacy and ESL training to volunteer tutors.

The Need

Literacy
There are 5 levels of literacy. 46% of British Columbians aged 16 to 65 score below literacy Level 3.
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Individuals with low literacy levels may have difficulty understanding newspapers, following instruction manuals, reading health information and other daily living tasks.
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Numeracy
There are 5 levels of numeracy. 52.3% of British Columbians aged 16 to 65 have level 2 or lower numeracy skills.
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These individuals may have difficulty calculating interest on a car loan, using information on a graph, calculating medicine dosage and other daily living tasks.
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Given the centrality of written communication and basic mathematics in virtually all areas of life … individuals must be able to understand, process, and respond to textual and numerical information, print and digital, if they are to participate fully in society.
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“…efforts to improve literacy can have dramatic and far reaching effects.
"Higher literacy can boost the economic and financial success of individuals and the economy as a whole.
"It can reduce poverty, improve health, lift community engagement and lead to a higher standard of living.
"In fact, it is hard to identify any other single issue that can have such a large payoff to individuals, the economy and society.” ...Craig Alexander
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The Society

The Parksville Qualicum Adult Literacy Society is a registered charity operating under the Societies Act of British Columbia, Canada. It has approximately 60 voting members and an elected Board of four officers and two directors-at-large: