Some of our image-laden pages may load more slowly depending on your internet service. Patience if they don't display immediately. You'll be glad you waited.

South Okanagan Photos

Literacy groups have funds restored after cutbacks

The B.C. government is providing Decoda Literacy Solutions with a $1 million grant to support the organization’s literacy outreach programs in communities throughout British Columbia.

Education Minister Don McRae made the announcement today at a Decoda conference in Vancouver on literacy and essential skills in the B.C. labour market.

The $1 million in funding brings total grant funding to Decoda to $2.5 million from the Ministry of Education in 2012-13. This includes $500,000 provided in September for the Raise-A-Reader campaign.

The funds will be used to further support 102 community literacy task groups in B.C. These community organizations make an important contribution to the development of individual and family literacy skills through the delivery and co-ordination of literacy programs. The services many of these groups provide include employment readiness programs and essential job skills training.

Decoda Literacy Solutions is B.C.’s provincial literacy organization. In 2011, Literacy BC merged with the literacy department of 2010 Legacies Now to become Decoda Literacy Solutions. Decoda supports literacy and learning in communities throughout B.C.

***

Earlier: Two years ago the Ministry of Education cut funding for literacy programs given to Decoda Literacy Solutions from $2.5 million, to $1 million. Thanks to reserve money from previous mergers the group was able to continue their normal operations for the past two years. Now that the reserve money is gone funding for nearly half of the literacy programs across the province supported by Decoda will be cut. CEO Brenda LeClair says that they need to come up with more money.

“This year we’ve received only one million. There’s no way to divide $1 million among all the communities. By the way the number of communities that are touched by the 102 task groups are 400 communities. That’s almost every community in the province, and it was virtually an impossible task to divide that one million dollars out. Decoda doesn’t have the ability to add $1.5 million. We’re a not for profit organization and we don’t have those kind of funding resources.”

LeClair says they investigated many potential funding models with the $1 million, but says $2.5 million is the bare minimum they need to adequately provide their funding, and they are currently looking at ways to raise the extra $1.5 million.