Let’s Rebuild the Foundation: Reinstating Canada’s Adult Literacy Knowledge Infrastructure Requires

This initiative began with the creation of the National Literacy Secretariat (NLS) in 1987 and the International Literacy Year in 1990 and continued well into the mid-2000s.6 At the time, the NLS considered literacy in relation to its use in everyday life, and literacy training was designed to be learner-centred — that is, to consider the learner’s individual goals and aspirations, which may or ma. [...] When the HRSDC library closed in 2012, The Centre for Literacy collaborated with the Office of Literacy and Essential Skills, the successor to the NLS, to select materials that would interest people working in the field. [...] 17 Let’s Rebuild the Foundation Unable to find alternate sources of core funding, several other literacy organizations eventually closed their doors, including the Canadian Literacy and Learning Network and Laubach Literacy of Canada at the national level, as well as Literacy Ontario, Literacy Partners of Manitoba and Literacy Newfoundland and Labrador at the provincial level. [...] While provincial and territorial literacy organizations shared knowledge and research among their members through regularly scheduled conferences, the federal government no longer supported the capacity to bring people together at the national level and across regions.11 The last national conference open to anyone in the literacy community was likely the 2015 Summer Institute hosted by The Centre. [...] Without access to historical documents, future researchers will be unable to tell the story of the federal government’s role in adult literacy and build on its knowledge and experience to develop further and advance the adult literacy field.