National Volunteer Week Feature: Red Deer Public Library Adult Literacy Program

National Volunteer Week is a time to recognize, celebrate and thank Canada’s 13.3 million volunteers! Here at home, there are so many fantastic volunteers who help to build our communities by giving generously of their time & talents. This week, Todayville in partnership with Volunteer Central is profiling several incredible volunteer initiatives.

We’ll begin with the Red Deer Public Library Adult Literacy Program!

The Red Deer Public Library Adult Literacy Program has been in Red Deer for more than 30 years and a part of Red Deer Public Library since 2006. Volunteers are the core of this program. Volunteer tutors from the community meet one-on-one with adult learners who come from different walks of life. Some of the program’s learners have struggled with literacy skills all their lives, while others were not able to complete their education for various reasons and now they want to work on improving their reading and writing skills. Some learners need help with math so that they can obtain a trade ticket; others would like assistance with preparing for the knowledge test to get their driver’s license. Many learners are new to Canada and are struggling with adjusting to their new life because of their limited English language and/or foundational life skills. There are people who come from war-torn countries where they had very little or no chance for education; on the other hand, there are many foreign trained professionals who would like to get their credentials recertified and continue working in their field in Canada. Whatever the needs might be, dedicated volunteers step in, donate their time, and help Adult Literacy learners reach their goals.

Currently, the program has 193 tutors and 326 learners, and more registrations come in on a daily basis. There is always a long list of learners waiting for a tutor. Many volunteers know this, and several are willing to take on multiple learners just to reduce the wait list and help more people succeed sooner. Program tutors not only assist with learning, they also become role models, confidants, and friends.

As a result of the commitment of the volunteer tutors in the Adult Literacy Program and a variety of learning opportunities, learners are often able to find better employment, improve their reading skills, help their children with homework, and most importantly, become more confident as they continue to improve their literacy.

Tutors have always said that they receive as much from the program as they give because they are sharing their knowledge with others who struggle with literacy. Some say, for example, that they enjoy volunteering with the program because they are helping someone achieve a better life; some tutors get satisfaction when they see progress in a learner, others are happy because they make friends and help build a sense of community. When tutors work with English Language Learners, they are often learning about different countries and cultures, they are learning how to work with people who come from different places, and they are playing a major role in making Red Deer an inclusive community.

Literacy is a foundation to build a better and a more sustainable future, and the volunteers of the Red Deer Library Board Adult Literacy Program are definitely making an impact on building that future for generations to come. Having the Program at the library also assists newcomers to Canada to integrate into their new community. It provides the social interaction which they need while being away from home and in a new country. By volunteering in many library programs, they are giving back to the community.

This service is uniquely individualized. Each learner receives focused tutoring in their particular area of need. These needs range from building settlement skills through language, enabling students to make medical, residential and commercial decisions by using relevant linguistic skills, to targeted preparation for post-secondary bridging (this year, tutors have helped learners prepare for apprenticeship entrance exams, General Education Development Tests (GEDs), Citizenship tests, English Language Proficiency exams, high-school upgrading and more). The successful effects of this program are evident not only in the increased English skills of the learners, but in their lives as well.

During the past year and a half, due to the new arrivals of many Syrian refugees to the Red Deer community, the Adult Literacy Program has also been responsive to their needs. The program offered a variety of learning opportunities that introduced the new refugee families to Canadian culture, helped them get connected in their new community, and assisted them in acquiring language and basic computer skills.

As a result of the Adult Literacy Program and its community partnerships, many learners receive the help they need. This collaboration helps the learners access barrier-free learning opportunities and provides referrals as the need arises. Together, as partners, we can ensure that the services the Adult Literacy Program offers will provide people in the program support and the opportunity to practice their foundational skills so that they can be successful in the society.

To become a volunteer tutor, or to register as a learner, please contact:

Alla Mysko-Henke
Adult Literacy Coordinator
Dawe Branch – Red Deer Public Library
56 Holt Street, Red Deer AB
T4N 6A6

Phone: 403-346-2533
E-mail: [email protected]

About Volunteer Central

Through our comprehensive website, convenient downtown location, and relevant programs and workshops, we connect volunteers, non-profit organizations, and businesses to create successful volunteer relationships in Central Alberta.

At Volunteer Central, we…

offer a listing of volunteer opportunities
list non-profit employment opportunities
host training programs and workshops
develop corporate volunteer programs
promote and support community events
build capacity in the nonprofit sector across central Alberta

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SPARC Red Deer – Caring Adult Nominations open now!

Published on March 10, 2024

SPARC Red Deer

Red Deer community let’s give a round of applause to the incredible adults shaping the future of our kids. Whether they’re a coach, neighbour, teacher, mentor, instructor, or someone special, we want to know about them!

Tell us the inspiring story of how your nominee is helping kids grow up great. We will honour the first 100 local nominees for their outstanding contributions to youth development. It’s time to highlight those who consistently go above and beyond!

To nominate, visit Events (sparcreddeer.ca)

Addictions

‘Harm Reduction’ is killing B.C.’s addicts. There’s got to be a better way

Published on January 28, 2024

Todayville

From the Frontier Centre for Public Policy

By Susan Martinuk

B.C. recently decriminalized the possession of small amounts of illicit drugs. The resulting explosion of addicts using drugs in public spaces, including parks and playgrounds, recently led the province’s NDP government to attempt to backtrack on this policy

Since 2016, more than 40,000 Canadians have died from opioid drug overdoses — almost as many as died during the Second World War.

Governments, health care professionals and addiction experts all acknowledge that widespread use of opioids has created a public health crisis in Canada. Yet they agree on virtually nothing else about this crisis, including its causes, possible remedies and whether addicts should be regarded as passive victims or accountable moral agents.

Fuelled by the deadly manufactured opioid fentanyl, Canada’s national drug overdose rate stood at 19.3 people per 100,000 in 2022, a shockingly high number when compared to the European Union’s rate of just 1.8. But national statistics hide considerable geographic variation. British Columbia and Alberta together account for only a quarter of Canada’s population yet nearly half of all opioid deaths. B.C.’s 2022 death rate of 45.2/100,000 is more than double the national average, with Alberta close behind at 33.3/100,00.

In response to the drug crisis, Canada’s two western-most provinces have taken markedly divergent approaches, and in doing so have created a natural experiment with national implications.

B.C. has emphasized harm reduction, which seeks to eliminate the damaging effects of illicit drugs without actually removing them from the equation. The strategy focuses on creating access to clean drugs and includes such measures as “safe” injection sites, needle exchange programs, crack-pipe giveaways and even drug-dispensing vending machines. The approach goes so far as to distribute drugs like heroin and cocaine free of charge in the hope addicts will no longer be tempted by potentially tainted street drugs and may eventually seek help.

But safe-supply policies create many unexpected consequences. A National Post investigation found, for example, that government-supplied hydromorphone pills handed out to addicts in Vancouver are often re-sold on the street to other addicts. The sellers then use the money to purchase a street drug that provides a better high — namely, fentanyl.

Doubling down on safe supply, B.C. recently decriminalized the possession of small amounts of illicit drugs. The resulting explosion of addicts using drugs in public spaces, including parks and playgrounds, recently led the province’s NDP government to attempt to backtrack on this policy — though for now that effort has been stymied by the courts.

According to Vancouver city councillor Brian Montague, “The stats tell us that harm reduction isn’t working.” In an interview, he calls decriminalization “a disaster” and proposes a policy shift that recognizes the connection between mental illness and addiction. The province, he says, needs “massive numbers of beds in treatment facilities that deal with both addictions and long-term mental health problems (plus) access to free counselling and housing.”

In fact, Montague’s wish is coming true — one province east, in Alberta. Since the United Conservative Party was elected in 2019, Alberta has been transforming its drug addiction policy away from harm reduction and towards publicly-funded treatment and recovery efforts.

Instead of offering safe-injection sites and free drugs, Alberta is building a network of 10 therapeutic communities across the province where patients can stay for up to a year, receiving therapy and medical treatment and developing skills that will enable them to build a life outside the drug culture. All for free. The province’s first two new recovery centres opened last year in Lethbridge and Red Deer. There are currently over 29,000 addiction treatment spaces in the province.

This treatment-based strategy is in large part the work of Marshall Smith, current chief of staff to Alberta’s premier and a former addict himself, whose life story is a testament to the importance of treatment and recovery.

The sharply contrasting policies of B.C. and Alberta allow a comparison of what works and what doesn’t. A first, tentative report card on this natural experiment was produced last year in a study from Stanford University’s network on addiction policy (SNAP). Noting “a lack of policy innovation in B.C.,” where harm reduction has become the dominant policy approach, the report argues that in fact “Alberta is currently experiencing a reduction in key addiction-related harms.” But it concludes that “Canada overall, and B.C. in particular, is not yet showing the progress that the public and those impacted by drug addiction deserve.”

The report is admittedly an early analysis of these two contrasting approaches. Most of Alberta’s recovery homes are still under construction, and B.C.’s decriminalization policy is only a year old. And since the report was published, opioid death rates have inched higher in both provinces.

Still, the early returns do seem to favour Alberta’s approach. That should be regarded as good news. Society certainly has an obligation to try to help drug users. But that duty must involve more than offering addicts free drugs. Addicted people need treatment so they can kick their potentially deadly habit and go on to live healthy, meaningful lives. Dignity comes from a life of purpose and self-control, not a government-funded fix.

Susan Martinuk is a senior fellow at the Frontier Centre for Public Policy and author of the 2021 book Patients at Risk: Exposing Canada’s Health Care Crisis. A longer version of this article recently appeared at C2CJournal.ca.