3. City Hall
LCBC
Early Learning
Partnership
Success by Six
Community
Literacy
Coordinator
Leadership
College Training
Programs
Food
Share
Regional Literacy
Coordinator
Kiwanis
Seniors
Community
Plans
Private Schools
Literacy
Plans
Education
Youth
Reconnect
High Schools
Professional
Development
Business
Sense for
Youth
Volunteer
Centre
Hi Tec
Entrepreneurship
CAP
Enterprise
Centre
20th
Anniversary
Celebration
(non-profits)
Skateboard Park
E-Growth
New Horizons for
Seniors
Newspaper
Articles
Mental
Health &
Addictions
LirnBC
Nawican
MNBC Riding
Thunder Youth
Project
ENP
Social
Enterprise
Plan
4. Our goals for our community
• Embed literacy awareness
• Practice and appreciate plain
language and clear
communication
• Create literacy friendly
environments
• Empower people to ask for clarity
14. “The only message
that matters is the
one the other person
perceives.”
Schultz von Thun, 2001
15. A plethora of individuals
with expertise in culinary
techniques vitiates the
potable concoction.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21. When writing or communicating
with people, it is important, in
order to ensure clarity and
understanding, that the speaker
or writer make a concerted effort
to ensure they omit and remove
any and all unnecessary words or
phrases that they might have
used.
22. When writing or communicating
with people, it is important, in
order to ensure clarity and
understanding, that the speaker
or writer make a concerted effort
to ensure they omit and remove
any and all unnecessary words or
phrases that they might have
used.
23. Affects your Bottom Line
Type of user
Old regulation
Plain-language regulation
Experienced
2.43 min.
1.50 min.
Inexperienced
3.51
1.73
Old letter
Plain-language letter
Calls to each counsellor each month
91.4
16
Total calls each year, 10 counsellors
1128
192
*Joe Kimble: Writing for Dollars, Writing to Please, volume
6 of The Scribes Journal of Legal Writing
28. Turn OFF
your cell phone
in the hospital.
Cell phones interfere with
medical equipment.
Notes de l'éditeur
CHRISTABELLEWelcome! Thanks for choosing to spend time with us to share and learn.Today we hope to share our road show approach to PL in our community. How we arrivedOur vision/goals for the communityStrategies Continuing the movementWe were given a mandate by the province to become … Literacy plan – community literacy – CONVERTED/PracticingOur own backgrounds supported the concept - explainWe got to know our community. And, we got to understanding how difficult it is to navigate effectively through our community! Especially for those with low literacy, but everyone benefits by having clear messages.
SANDYThe Literacy Friendly Environment allowed the conversation around literacy to become everyone’s business.Teaching, Learning, Teachers, Learners ….Literacy is not about IntelligenceBecause we were Literacy people, we wanted to have the “I’m a teacher, you’re the learner” conversation.We realized that was too slow, and it was talking to the converted in the Adult literacy field, and other traditional places.We needed to reach out to the agencies and programs and people who were vital to the community but who didn’t think of themselves as educators or teachers. It was about learning, and engaging and experts and those who needed to know but didn’t know how to learn. It was about experts who knew but didn’t know how to explain. It was about people to self-conscience or shy or annoyed to ask the questions that needed to be asked, or admit that they didn’t / couldn’t understand.
SANDYCommunity Literacy Outreach Coordinator – on the ground. Community Services Networkconnection where the heads and reps of the non-profits met gave access to the plethora of services already being provided in our community. Speaking here was easy as we could connect literacy to EVERYONE and EVERYTHING. We weren’t shy! We invited ourselves to Staff meetings, events, registrations, garden tours, English Café, The English as a Second Language group, service groups...Cradle to Grave Access to community targeted venues, non-traditionalSo we embedded ourselves into those places, literacy by stealth, The more we talked the more doors that opened. The more doors that opened, the more we got to talk.We were working to make ourselves redundant.
CKKWe developed these goals after getting acquainted with the groups and individuals in our community.And don’t assume anything. Look at what you are doing with fresh eyes. http://www.dana.org/assets/0/58/292/B708ED38-A24A-4A36-B487-E6DFFE5E13EE.pdf
CHRISTABELLE - AUDIENCE AND HOOKHOW DO YOU DO THIS?CONSIDER your audience. Internal, external, public, co-workers, departments, students, part-time, professionals? – RIGHT to UNDERSTAND develop a message that is relevant and helpful.- We need to depend on the experts to share their information with us. And we need to be able to share our expertise with others. (EG - Public budget meetings/staff reports/tax notices/bylaws)USE PLAIN/CLEAR Language Glimpse of what it is!
CHRISTABELLE (AND SANDY)FORMAT OF OUR MESSAGE GELLED.This was powerful, our community recognized themselves in this. It is their uncle, cousin, grandfather, neighbour…Literacy is invisible. Huge stigma to admitting – not understanding, let alone low literacy. No X on their foreheads, take your communities, conjure a visual image of a downtown street or the mall, draw an imaginary line down the middle. On one side will be people who struggle to understand. They have jobs, mortgages, …Again, not about intelligence! Literacy is understood on a sliding scale. ACTIVITY: Ask questions about literacy levels. How literate are you? Fist of 5I.e. Computer literacy. (also mechanical, environmentally, civic, health, financial) 0. Doesn’t understand any of the potential of a computerDoesn’t have one, not able to turn on a computerOnly uses emailUse software like excel, word, or graphicsBegin to use the internet to find answers to questionsHave created an avatar What this looks like in CANADA - IALS data – mini-ials currently being conductedLevel 1 - 16.6% Person not able to read at all or has very serious problems readingLevel 2 - 25.6% A person who reads simple languageLevel 3 - 35.1% A person who reads well enough to get along from day-to-dayLevel 4, 5 - 22.7% People can read complex reading material Employed with post secondary education struggle too.
SANDYRaising awareness – beyond the numbersSo, literacy, good or bad, is invisible. And literacy is not about intelligence! But it is a reality, the stigma around understand is real for everyone, and one of the hardest things for most people to do is to ask for help to understand. Many kinds of literacy - computers, financial, health, There are very successful people in Dawson Creek, running businesses, buying houses, recycling, paying bills, raising kids. 60% of them have a formal high school education or less.More than 60% don’t have a level 2, the minimum, in Health Literacy.Most get along just fine thank you. They have excellent coping skills. But, they may not show up for meetings at City Hall for decisions that are important to their lives, they may not manage their finances in a way that will guarantee a comfortable retirement. They may never ask a question in public and that’s too bad because, chances are, many others would have benefited by hearing that answer too.These citizens own businesses, run successful households and hold good jobs… But they don’t understand the notice in the paper about which days they are allowed to water their lawns. The notice was tricky and not written in plain language. It was one of the specific examples we worked on at the workshop for City Hall administrators. The question was eating up a huge amount of front line staff time in phone calls!
CHRISTABELLEThe GAP conversationThis is WHY everyone needs to be on board. The towing company, the health unit nurses and receptionists, the Early Learning Coordinator, the Strong Start Coordinator, the Friendship Centre…they have a vested interest in having people understand what they are doing and offering.Story: The technician at the hospital who asked me to sign the release form clearing the hospital of responsibility for anything that may go wrong with the test. “Do you ask everyone to sign this? Does everyone sign it? Do you think everyone UNDERSTANDS this? Would YOUR Grandmother understand this?”
CHRISTABELLEWHY? We gave examples of systems to illustrateInforfmation and ReferralEducationLegalHealthFinancialfirst obstacle -STIGMA i.e. Men and healthcare/women and mechanics/seniors and technologyAbility to understand and navigate the systemOutcomes/Long term affects of actions – individually and on society For example, reading signs and maps, asking the right questions, filling out forms.Story of Ambulatory Care unit
SANDYA literacy audit is a view of your service through the eyes of a client or person trying to access your service.It’s a physical exercise.What do you SEE when you approach the building?Some services were shocked and didn’t recognize their buildings!Is there a name on the building? Can you see the address?
SANDYWe knew we needed to show people what we were talking about. So I took a camera into the community and recorded first impressions.External first impression, before you see or talk to people. This is your face to the community. Welcoming?How does this make you feel?Website would be an external contact. How’s your website for friendliness?
How is this different?
CHRISTABELLEDrilling down.The Hook.Made it personal.Connected our message to something the organization was already doing or interested in.We showed them how in practical and with very real examples.We used the Creating Literacy Friendly environment from Literacy Alberta and asked “What are you doing to accomplish these things?” Building on what was there and the good intentions of the system.
William Butler Yeats – Think like a wise man but communicate in the language of the peopleThe perception was not matching the message. THIS AS HOW WE GOT INTO PLAIN LANGUAGE.PURPOSE /AUDIENCEWe’re being asked to be more responsible for our health and the health of our familiesPeople with low literacy have only 2/3 of the income of other adultsOffenders have significantly lower literacy skills than the general population. As many as 75% of Canadian inmates have low literacy skills.There is a large “wage premium” for workers with high literacy skills and a corresponding income penalty for those with lower skills.The world is changing very quickly. Computer skills and the ability to use computers and other technology to improve learning, productivity, and performance are necessary in the new knowledge based society.It is a necessary ingredient for active citizenship and community participation.The environmental issues facing us are complex. We need to be able to share these complex ideas with the people who can make a difference by recycling, etc.The IALS study found that investment in human capital, that is, in education and skills training, is three times as important to economic growth over the long run as investment in physical capital, such as machinery and equipment.
Reading ease: 4.9Grade Level 15.8Old version Reading ease: 100%Grade level .5Some people think they need to use big words and complex ideas to sound intelligent. It doesn’t matter how intelligent you are if nobody reads or understands your message. Really smart people know how to make complex ideas understood by everyone. Simple is smart.Memos should be short, preferably in point form.New information needs to be clearly presented. Give the short version or summary first. Then, if the recipient doesn’t choose to read on, they will at least have an overview of the topic and know where to go for more information.
Introduced easy, tangible, small ways to benefit and improve the message for greater understanding for all.Using symbols instead of text to say the same thing – better?
Actual notice home. Discussed at the PAC meeting.
You’ve seen these? As simple as making community bulletins easier to find info that is important
What is the purpose of this board? Is anyone responsible for keeping it up to date or relevant?
It’s now 2009!Is this still relevant?Missed opportunity for engagement, information delivery, help, understanding.
When you’re trying to communicate… hold on… what does this say?...Reading ease 21.9Grade 20.1
When you’re trying to communicate… hold on… what does this say?...Readability testingReading ease 21.9Grade 20.1
Affects your bottom line = measurable – can be tracked easily.Plain language means it takes less time for users to solve a problem (in minutes). (In this study, users were asked several questions about FCC pleasure-boat radio requirements. The answers to the questions were in a regulation. Times are the average it took to answer each question.)2.Veteran’s Benefits form letter. Reduction in inquiries about completing the formas a result of plain language adaption. This saves VBA about $8 million dollars every time they mail the letter. 3. Citibank revised its forms and saved 50% of the time needed to train staff and improved the accuracy of the information they were giving to their customers.
We know that it won’t be possible to teach everyone to read or be literate in all the ways we need to be literate overnight. BUT, we can begin to see the systems we work in and have created in a different way. We can lead change in the systems to benefit everyone. The person who enters the system has overcome a stigma and now we need to create a system so solid and clear that they can’t fall off the path.This is how we “Imagine we can change the world” – with a literacy strategy that is win-win-win. The learner wins, the service provider wins, and the community as a whole wins.This approach works “on the ground.” We knew it worked because: people were engaged and happy to participate. We heard anecdotal feedback and had positive reviews Funding the initiativeLiteracy organizations traditionally, “help the learners” they need to focus on helping to embed the plain language and communication awareness piece in the community at large too. Champion the learning for everyone.Empower everyone to take action, experts and learners. Raise awarenessSpirit of Literacy EventsReviewed and re-write docs, OCP’s ect.Reduced the stigma of low literacy Articles in the paperPlain Language workshopsLiteracy audits
We’ve used your expertise as the change agents in our community to recruiting and training other change agents. Thank you!It was a successful approach, friendly and effective both with the teachers and the learners in our community.
Use real examples.Sign on the main door at the Dawson Creek Hospital. All caps, does the underline help?
