Happy New Year!
We’ve celebrated our many accomplishments in 2017 and are planning for 2018. We’d love to celebrate your highlights as well. Contact us if you have stories of best practices, successes, or trying something new to address a challenge.

We’ll be looking for recommendations of adult learners, past or present, to speak at the 2018 Adult Learners' Week celebration the first week of April. It’s important to get the message out to the general public and potential learners the opportunities to improve their skills.

January 27th is Family Literacy Day. We heard through our last survey how some of you are planning to celebrate. Congratulations to Terry Faber, who was last month’s winner.

This month’s 2-minute survey asks about your research needs. I appreciate having facts and figures at my fingertips, especially during proposal writing time. For instance, our colleague in BC, Decoda has a fact sheet on family literacy which will come in handy this month. Frontier College has a position paper on Poverty and Literacy which may be useful for the Building Vibrant Communities grant mentioned below. I’ve also found a very useful analysis of the PIAAC data from the Conference Board of Canada: Provincial & Territorial Ranking of Adults with Low Literacy Skills. The LNS Resource Hub is a great place to share resources such as these.

We look forward to supporting learners, practitioners and learning organizations in 2018. Contact us at 1-800-255-5203 to discuss ways we can support you!

Take our 2-minute survey on literacy research needs. Your name will go into a draw for a prize.
Draw will take place at 2:00pm on Friday January 5, 2018.

Adult Learners' Week 2018: Enter your story about how improving your literacy skills has made a difference in your life. Your stories inspire others to continue learning. All eligible submissions will have the chance to win an iPad Mini and be published in the Adult Learners' Week 2018 ebooklet. ALW2017 ebooklet

The Learning Beacon: Here's an opportunity for adult learners to have their stories published in the 2018 issue of The Learning Beacon: Please encourage your learners to write stories about their hometowns for the Community Map feature. Email them to Marie David by Friday April 27th.

Register Now for Practitioner Training (PT) Modules offered in January 2018:
• Integrating Information Technology (IT) Skills into Your Teaching
• Learning Challenges
Check out the Practitioner Training webpage for more details on the program, modules, and tuition schedule.

LNS Resource Hub is the place for literacy practitioners who teach, tutor or mentor adult learners in Nova Scotia to share and co-develop teaching resources and discuss best practices. Email frampton.elaine@gmail.com to request a registration code and create your account!

Building Vibrant Communities Grant: Eligible applicants include community organizations, First Nations communities, registered charities, municipalities, social enterprises, and private-sector businesses if they partner with non-profit organizations. Funding is available for up to $50,000 dollars per project and organizations may submit more than one application for different projects. A total of $600,000 is available until March 31, 2018.  Read more    Program Guidelines

IT Fund: $15,000 is available. Community based learning organizations can apply for up to $1,000 per year. Funds are to be used for equipment and resources necessary for the delivery of NSSAL’s Adult Learning Program. This can include computers, printers, software, laptops, ipad minis, and assistive technology software. Technical support will be considered and cell phone expenses may be considered. Read more information on criteria and application process. Funds provided by LAE.

The PD Fund has approximately $1000 remaining for this year.

Computers for Schools: Does your learning organization need refurbished computers? We offer our LNS members laptops, computers, printers, monitors, keyboards, cables, etc. Place your orders today.

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January 17 from 1 - 3:00pm at 215 Dominion St., Bridgewater NS
Learn more about their diploma programs and career opportunities. Read more

Friday January 26 from 2:30 - 4:30pm at Hants Learning Network Association, 90 Sanford Dr., Windsor NS
Join adult learners and staff at HLNA for the provincial #FLD2018 celebration which will include an author presentation, family activities and refreshments.

Family Literacy Day Resources From ABC Life Literacy Canada:
FLD 2018 event guide
FLD 2018 posters, activities, and other promotional material

Immigrant Services Association of Nova Scotia offers learning opportunities for EAL students. Calendar

PARL offers free literacy activities 'for babies, ‘tweens, teens and everyone in between!' Read more

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Access to technology and computer training helps adult learners gain the essential skills they need for living and working in our digital world. Bedford-Sackville Learning Network was one of 19 community-based learning organizations in Nova Scotia to receive PGI Grants in 2017 totalling $48,000. Read more

Libraries across the province are facing the grim reality that without more help very soon, many of them will be faced with difficult decisions. For some time now, the province has budgeted $14.4 million for libraries. Read more

Nearly nine-in-ten Canadians (87 per cent) believe more needs to be done to improve literacy rates, according to a new Environics survey commissioned by Frontier College. The national survey reveals 90 per cent of Canadians agree strong literacy skills are essential to attaining a high quality of life. Read more

You can nominate a volunteer in the following categories: Representative Volunteer Award, Youth Volunteer Award, and Family Volunteer Award. Deadline for nominations is February 16th, 2018. Read more

How to add simple fractions. Video
How to solve a simple algebra equation using three easy steps. Video
How to subtract fractions with regrouping. Video

This guide from Project READ Literacy Network provides adult education facilitators with information and strategies for supporting adult learners living with mental health conditions or disorders. Resource

This guide from Bow Valley College’s ELL Training Network offers a variety of teaching strategies that are effective for refugee learners. Resource

Dr. Jenny Horsman introduces simple strategies that can help ourselves and others return to learning with greater ease, in the aftermath of violence. To learn more, visit learningandviolence.net. Video

This booklet offers activities for families that will help them understand how to talk about spending, saving and budgeting money. Resource

This resource will help beginner, intermediate, and advanced literacy learners as well as EAL learners to learn the numeracy and math skills necessary to improve their financial literacy. Resource

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ABC Life Literacy Canada News - December 2017
Community Sector Council of Nova Scotia, Central Region - December 2017
Community Sector Council of Nova Scotia, Northern Region - December 2017
Community Sector Council of Nova Scotia, Valley Region - December 2017
Engage: Tamarack Institute - December 2017
Literacy Coalition of New Brunswick - December 2017
NWT Literacy Council - December 2017
Tech Tips for Teachers - December 2017
Transforming Lives - November 2017
World Education / US - December 2017