Distribution of
Family Literacy Resources
Pilot Report

Pilot Program Report

At Kingston Literacy, RAPP packs are available for borrowing by all the adult learners registered in the centre’s various programs. In addition, the organization has developed partnerships with Better Beginnings for Kingston Children and the Kingston Military Resource Centre, both located in Kingston, as well as with several family resource centres located in small towns outside of Kingston. Susan Barry, Kingston Literacy’s family literacy coordinator, visits parent-child playgroups to talk about RAPP, to demonstrate how to use the materials, and to register interested parents in the program. During subsequent visits, which Barry makes twice a month, parents return the pack they borrowed on her last visit, and receive their new pack.

Resources

As well as the forty titles in their RAPP Collection series, Kingston Literacy has another thirty-five packs that they use regularly. Multiple copies of each children’s book—between fifteen and twenty copies of each—are stored in clear plastic containers together with photocopies of the reading and language hints, rhymes and songs, craft ideas, and activities that go with the title. The RAPP library, which takes up one whole wall in the family literacy office, is supplemented by a library that includes baby and toddler books, chapter books for older school-aged children, and books for pre-schoolers and older children on special topics.

For most of the year, Kingston Literacy has a volunteer working two or three half-days a week to get the packs ready to take to the playgroups. The volunteer is usually a Queen’s University student who receives a tuition subsidy from the university in exchange for performing volunteer work in the community. As well as photocopying the reading and language hints, rhymes, and activity sheets, the volunteer assembles all the materials necessary to make the craft. Barry concedes it’s a lot of work to put the packs together. “When you’re bringing packs to twelve families with twenty children between them . . . and that’s only one group . . . that’s a lot of craft components.” The work is worth it, though, because, says Barry, “The craft is the hook for the book. The kids look for the craft . . . and the craft is very appealing for the parents because everything is right there.”
For those parents who request them, glue and scissors are also included in the pack.

So far, Kingston Literacy has covered the costs of bringing RAPP to parent-child playgroups in the community. Funding is unpredictable, and Barry says she chooses the groups she works with carefully. “We try to select groups where there are parents who may not have books in their homes.” However, once she has started to work with a particular group, all the families who attend are welcome to register in the RAPP program. According to Barry, only the limitations of time and money stop the program from expanding in a variety of ways. “There’s a school-readiness program in the room next door to us. The parents aren’t involved, except for attending a few workshops. We could do RAPP with them.”

Challenges

Kingston Literacy receives no core funding for family literacy; however, they have been able to maintain and extend their RAPP program over the past twelve years by including it as a component of many of their other funded adult programs. Barry makes sure all the adults registered in their various upgrading and family literacy programs know about RAPP and are encouraged to borrow the packs to take home. “It’s a good way to keep parents connected to the centre once they have completed one of our programs,” she says.

Critical Factors

Barry points to one of the essential features of Kingston Literacy’s RAPP program: “It’s important to keep a record for each family. We make a note of how many children a family has and their ages. Then we prepare the RAPP packs individually for each family.” Barry will include a baby book for a family that has a baby at home, or a chapter book for an older child. When she visits a group, she takes the time to speak with the parents, asking them what their child liked or didn’t like. “A parent will say, ‘the book you picked was too hard for my child.’ Or a family may have experienced the death of a grandparent and will ask if we have a book dealing with death. It’s important that the parents feel they are influencing what goes into the pack.” As well as the record sheet, each family has a lending sheet where the books they have borrowed and returned are listed.

The informal conversation with parents is important for another reason. Barry says that as parents get comfortable with her, they will sometimes open up about their own literacy issues. “As we get to know the parents, we let them know more about Kingston Literacy. We can tell them we have adult upgrading and we let them know about programs that are coming up. But that doesn’t happen in the first conversation.”

Barry’s advice for anyone wanting to start a RAPP program is to start small. “You don’t have to start with multiple copies. You could start with five different books and just build it up gradually.”