About
What is Comox Valley Literacy Now?
Comox Valley Literacy Now is a community-based planning process designed to address local literacy needs. Throughout this process community members and organizations will collaborate to build on existing literacy work and address important gaps. As one of BC’s 2010 Legacies, Literacy Now aims to make British Columbia the most literate province in Canada and a global leader in literacy learning.
There are two phases to the Literacy Now process. In the first phase, the Comox Valley Literacy Now Committee developed a community literacy plan that reflects our community’s literacy strengths and challenges. The second phase is the implementation of the Comox Valley literacy plan.
The five objectives in the Comox Valley Literacy Plan are:
- Build a collaborative learning community
- Generate awareness and promote learning and literacy in the Comox Valley
- Support new and existing community based workplace literacy initiatives
- Continue to support and build the capacity of Family and Cultural Literacy services and initiatives
- Identify the means to implement our action plan
To download the plan, click on the following link: comox-valley-literacy-plan
Defining Literacy
The Comox Valley Literacy Now Committee understands that “literacies are essential cultural, social, and academic practices and understandings that involve not only mathematics, but also other abilities such as understanding and using languages, music, media, social skills, and civic understanding” (2010 Legacies Now Community Literacy Planning Guide, 2007).
We have borrowed Ron Faris’ acronym CHEERS to illuminate the many community purposes of literacy (2010 Legacies Now Community Literacy Planning Guide, 2007).
- Citizenship Literacy: Civic and community engagement
- Health Literacy: Preventative health promotion
- Economic Literacy: Community economic development
- Environmental literacy: Acting locally as if future generations matter
- Rural/urban development literacy: Community development
- Social/cultural literacy: Multi-cultural celebration and social development
The technical literacies including multi-media literacy and digital literacy cross-cut the six community literacies and are tools for networking and creating new avenues of communicating.
Comox Valley Literacy Now Initiatives
For current Comox Valley Literacy Now initiatives, please click on the following link:
For past Comox Valley Literacy Now initiatives, please click on the following link: