Wednesday, September 16, 2020

Community Literacy Work in a time of Covid-19: Part 5, "Accessible" Reading

Outflow (Ministry Inc.) hosts a men's shelter in the heart of Saint John. When the Covid-19 related closing began, lots of Saint Johners - especially our poorest residents - lost access to many daily supports, including the Saint John Free Public library. Sheltering in place was tough enough; sheltering in place with nothing to read was... well, bad.

Outflow spoke with us about creating an in-house library of sorts. Talking it through, they decided they wanted a shelf with good quality books, books written for adults, and books written at various levels of reading difficulty. Through a private donation, we were able to provide a 'starting kit' of mixed level reading materials, including some very popular titles by Nova Scotia newcomer William Kowalski.


Photo from bookseller Lakesidebooks.com

When we checked back in, a few weeks later, we heard that the Outflow library was still chugging along: helpful, popular, accessible.

For us, that last term is key, and means something more than just "in-house" or "libraries have re-opened." It also means books people can read, books they don't find too hard or too easy, too simple or too complex. "I like to read when I can read," someone told us long ago. That's been our rationale for proving good reads at multiple levels of reading difficulty ever since.

Easier-to-read books by Mr. Kowalski and many other top-notch authors can be found at Grass roots Press or Orca Books and, of course, your local public library.


Tuesday, September 8, 2020

Community Literacy Work in a time of Covid-19: Part 4, International Literacy Day (#backyardstorytent)

 Happy International Literacy Day.  :\

According to the UN 'International Literacy Day 2020 focuses on “Literacy teaching and learning in the COVID-19 crisis and beyond,” especially on the role of educators and changing pedagogies.'  The authors note that during the initial responses to Covid-19, many in-person literacy supports and services were suspended, and communities turned to distance learning methods; online or virtual in some contexts, 'through TV and radio, or in open air spaces' in others.

In the posts below, we've highlighted shifts QLNB made in response to Covid-19: chiefly, suspending our work of hosting community learning spaces, and bumping up our work of providing tools and information to support learning-in-place.  However, we also dabbled in virtual outreach with our #backyardstorytent videos - four short YouTube videos encouraging summer-long, family-sized 'storytents.'

Backyard Storytents - Imagine Yours


Backyard Storytents - Cats


Backyard Storytents - Staycation


Backyard Storytents - Any Time


'What is the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on youth' the UN asks, 'and adult literacy educators and teaching and learning? What are the lessons learnt?'  We don't claim any special insights or accomplishments.  With many of you, we are also using this International Literacy Day 'to reflect on and discuss how innovative and effective pedagogies and teaching methodologies can be used in youth and adult literacy programmes to face the pandemic and beyond.'  At this point, all we can bring to the table is our determination to not stop working in and for those urban and rural New Brunswick communities who reach out to us for support.  After all, as the UN also points out, the 'existing gap between policy discourse and reality... already existed in the pre-COVID-19 era.'  Covid-19 is a challenge, but it is neither the most widely felt, nor the steepest, barrier to increased community, family and adult literacies.

So, yeah.  Unironically. Happy International Literacy Day.  Let's go.  :)

Sunday, September 6, 2020

Community Literacy Work in a time of Covid-19: Part 3, (Rural) Little Free Libraries


In past years, the end of August would see us writing reports and sorting pictures, reflecting on a summer of storytenting at rural NB events - Canada Day spent in Grand Bay - Westfield, Campobello Island's Fogfest, Field Day in Browns Flat, Come Home Week at the Junction.  This year, event tents have been replaced by visits to little free libraries both in and out of the city.

We've already shared our kick-off visit to Redhead.  This weekend we dropped packages of books authored by New Brunswickers to little free libraries in Browns Flat (inside the Irving), Bates Landing (at the Roadside Market) and in Long Reach (at the Fullerton Corner Market).


We met up with Hon. Bill Oliver at Bates Landing (he was dropping off a couple of books at the library) and another NBer who said she regularly stops by on a weekly commute.

We met extraordinary white pumpkins of Fullerton Farms at our Long Reach stop (this one came home with Cheryl).  And we drove past acres of gorgeous Acadian forest and fields of fresh cut hay.  It's turning into a lovely autumn.

(Still, winter is coming - plan your reading now.)



Major funding for this project comes from a New Brunswick Department of Tourism, Heritage and Culture Literacy Promotion Grant.  Additional support has come from the New Brunswick Department of Social Development, a Literacy Coalition of New Brunswick - Peter Gzowski Invitational (PGI) grant, and various private and corporate donations.

For more information on books, borrowing and libraries in the current context, check out New Brunswick Public Libraries' COVID-19 and Your Library and, from earlier this year, a CBC webstory Is it safe to borrow library books? Your COVID-19 questions answered.

Friday, September 4, 2020

Community Literacy Work in a time of Covid-19: Part 2, SRC in a Box

 


Back when we all crowded the supermarkets and bus stops with nary a care in the world, QLNB had plans to run a six-week storytent program on Anglin Drive.  We'd outreach the provincial Summer Reading Club (SRC), snack on oranges and bananas, maybe bring along a jump rope or some sidewalk chalk, and make sure everybody knew about the neighbourhood library just down the street (open Tuesday evenings by QLNB for general borrowing and Thursday evenings by workers from the Public Library for stories, arts and crafts).

Then things changed.  There wasn't going to be a Thursday night program, nor an open Tuesday night, nor any oranges and bananas to share beneath the storytent.

Plan B: “Summer Reading Club in a Box.”  If children couldn't attend the storytent, maybe we could take books to them.  If lending or returning books was deemed inappropriate (as it was during the early months of Covid-19), maybe we could give the children brand new books, packaged in plastic and "rested" for 72 hours.  Given the cost of high quality new books - and we saw no benefit in handing out less expensive but unpopular books - we calculated we could stay within budget and still get books and SRC materials to approximately 20 children in the neighbourhood.  Each child would receive two new books on our first visit, and two more when we returned three weeks later.  On our first visit, we would ask families for specific titles and authors so that we could personalize the second pair of books each child received (requests ranged from graphic novels to Robert Munsch storybooks to Diary of a Wimpy Kid in English and French).  We reworked the budget, swallowing most material costs and all staffing costs.  We talked with our partners and funders to make sure they were on board.  And we shopped as shrewdly as we knew how.

Then, one evening in early July, we walked the neighbourhood.  Always mindful of the need to social distance, we made a specific approach to those children and families who had participated in the previous summer's SRC, while also offering to support any new families who spoke to on our first delivery night.  In keeping with our established practice of signing interested children up to SRC in the storytent (this is the ‘outreach’ component of outreaching SRC) we looked after the 2020 online signup and ensured participants received their SRC certificate by summer’s end..

In all, twenty-one children registered for SRC 2020, each child receiving four new books.  In addition, one newcomer family with multiple children, who did not register for SRC due to language and cultural barriers, received ten free books. In total, QLNB was able to deliver 94 new books to 25 children from 12 families.

This project was made possible by financial support from the City of Saint John, as wel as in-kind and materials support from the Department of Social Development - Housing and the Saint John Free Public Library.

QLNB weren't the only storytenters sidelined by the impact of Covid-19 and resulting restrictions on summer programming.  The Saint John Free Public Library was unable to provide their planned Storytent in the Courtenay Bay neighbourhood.  Knowing about our Anglin Drive plans, the Department of Social Development asked QLNB to help these neighbourhood families obtain quality reading materials and access to the library’s Summer Reading Club 2020.  Once again, we talked with our partners (the Department of Social Development - Housing and the Saint John Free Public Library) and developed a budget that would allow us to support approximately 20 children.

As was the case on Anglin Drive, each child would recieve two new books on our first visit, and two more when we returned three weeks later.  On our first visit, we relied on a community representative who had spoken with families in advance and who walked us around, introducing us to her neighbours.  In the end, seventeen children registered for SRC 2020, each receiving four new books to call their own. In addition, a newcomer family with two children, a resident’s grandchild, and five toddlers out and about in the neighbourhood received two free books each. In total, QLNB was able to deliver 84 new books to 25 children from 15 families.

Financial support from the Department of Social Development - Housing, and materials support from the Saint John Free Public Library, made this project possible.



Children expressed delight (and many adults surprise) at being able to keep the books.  For our part, we believe that reinforcing personal book ownership by giving away good quality books is an important factor in children coming or continuing to see themselves as readers.  QLNB also views this project as a practical way to support community literacy while respecting provincial COVID-19 guidelines.





P.s., for more information on books, borrowing and libraries in the current context, check out New Brunswick Public Libraries' COVID-19 and Your Library and, from earlier this year, a CBC webstory Is it safe to borrow library books? Your COVID-19 questions answered


Wednesday, September 2, 2020

Community Literacy Work in a time of Covid-19: Part 1, Little Free Libraries

Most summers, QLNB supports and promotes family and community literacy by showing up - tents and tarps, boxes of books to read and borrow, writing materials and singing games and healthy snacks and laying about in the sunshine (or huddled away from the rain) talking with kids and adults about stories and words and "how's your week going?"

This year, things have been different.

Our first change in plans came when we recognized there would be no New Brunswick community event storytents because New Brunswick wasn't having community events.  In place of event tents, we chose to deliver a package of books, authored by New Brunswickers, to little free libraries in or near-by those south-western NB communities our 2020 event tents would have served.

While these gift-packs vary, most include seven small picture books for children and families published by the University of New Brunswick Early Childhood Centre, an NB authored board, picture, youth fiction and youth non-fiction book, and a fiction and non-fiction book for adults (e.g., David Adams Richard's Mercy Among the Children or Nicholas Guitard's Waterfalls of New Brunswick: A Guide).

We kicked off this project by placing a book pack in Red Head's Little Free library (pictured above), as well as stocking four laundry-room libraries in the Roxbury Drive public housing neighbourhood.

Major funding for this project comes from a New Brunswick Department of Tourism, Heritage and Culture Literacy Promotion Grant.  Additional support has come from the New Brunswick Department of Social Development, a Literacy Coalition of New Brunswick - Peter Gzowski Invitational (PGI) grant, and various private and corporate donations.

 


P.s., for more information on books, borrowing and libraries in the current context, check out New Brunswick Public Libraries's COVID-19 and Your Library and, from earlier this year, a CBC webstory Is it safe to borrow library books? Your COVID-19 questions answered