Tasmanian Association of Community Houses

There is a large body of literature available on adult and family literacy, including research on literacy issues, literacy policy approaches, information on literacy programs, and specific curriculum and course guides.  For Neighbourhood Houses in Tasmania involved in the Everyday Literacy for Local Communities Program, any of these literacy resources could prove useful depending on the local literacy issues the House is dealing with.  However, finding the most useful could take more time than warranted, given how busy Houses are already.  To assist, a selection of the most useful documents and links will be added to this page as they are identified.  Suggestions are welcome.  Please let us know if a link no longer works or is no longer relevant.

An Everyday Literacy for Local Communities Resource Kit, summarising some of the basic issues and information about adult and family literacy, has been prepared to assist Neighbourhood Houses dealing with literacy issues in their communities.  This kit, now in its second edition, also contains information on how to apply for project funding through the Program.

The Tasmanian Education Department has prepared a Tasmanian Adult Literacy Action Plan to guide the Tasmanian Government's response to adult literacy issues in the State from 2010 to 2015.

For the locations of the existing and proposed Tasmanian Literacy Coordinators, who coordinate matching of volunteer literacy tutors with people seeking literacy support, refer to this map.

For people directly involved in delivering adult literacy support in a formalised (accredited) system, the Australian Core Skills Framework is the guide now in use.

For research information on literacy levels in Australia, and one of the catalysts for the funding of the Everyday Literacy for Local Communities Program by the Tasmanian Community Fund, refer to the Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey, Summary Results published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

For non-accredited adult language, literacy and numeracy training in Australia, Community Adult Language, Literacy and Numeracy Provision in Australia provides a good overview of the approaches and outcomes.

Though based on American research, the Health Literacy Fact Sheets highlight the potential impacts low literacy levels can have in dealing with health care information.

A workshop on creative approaches to community literacy programs was held at the 2010 TACH State Conference.  Hugh Fielding's presentation looked at the implications for people who get through to adulthood without literacy skills, how that manifests in their adult lives and how individualised literacy support can be provided by volunteer literacy tutors.  Notes on his presentation can be read here.   Dr Terry Whitebeach spoke about her experiences and approaches in working on adult literacy projects for people in the communities of a group of Neighbourhood Houses in southern Tasmania.  Notes on her presentation can be read here.

A publication useful to the neighbourhood house sector is Multi-literacies: literacy and community learning, published by the South Australian Department of Further Education, Employment, Science and Technology.  The purpose of the booklet is to provide information about incorporating multi-literacies skills development into community learning courses and projects.  It is a resource created within the framework of the South Australian Adult Literacy Action Plan, “Secret Codes: making literacy everybody’s business”, and is designed primarily as a starting point for project coordinators who wish to help adults build literacy skills within their community learning activities.  This publication also serves to highlight the point that engaging adults in activities that they enjoy does not mean that their literacy skills development is ignored. In fact, learning the literacy and numeracy skills relevant to an activity which gives them other skills and knowledge can prove to be the most successful approach for many learners.  Making sure that learning activities are tailored to the knowledge, skills and goals of each learner, is the most effective way to address learning needs and confidence adults need to be able to pursue pathways to further education training and employment. This resource provides some hints for planning and implementing community learning multi-literacy activities in communities.