6.0 Elizabeth Fry Society Executive Directors or Designates

This section will present a summary of the information received from Executive Directors or their designates at a number of local Elizabeth Fry Societies. The results have been tabulated for ease of reading, and have been grouped under the corresponding questions in the initial interview schedule. As in all other sections of this report, names and locations have been omitted to preserve confidentiality.

6.1 How are women referred to an Elizabeth Fry Society?

Executive Directors identified a number of ways in which women could be referred, including local court-watch programs, probation requirements stipulated by the courts, pre-release planning on the part of the correctional facility, social assistance, workers, John Howard Society workers, and friends or social networks of the client.

6.2 When a woman comes to the agency, describe her initial contact with a staff person.

Most Executive Directors agreed that initial contact could take place in a variety of ways. She could be referred to the agency by probation, she could meet her worker in court through a court-watch program, or she could be referred through community agencies. The worker could meet the woman while she was being held over before going to a correctional facility, or meet her in a detention centre. In addition, many women come to Elizabeth Fry halfway houses when they are released.

When women make initial contact with the Elizabeth Fry worker, they may be either in a state of shock in court, or feeling overwhelmed by the difficulties they experience an returning to the community upon release from an institution. Most agency staff interviewed for this project described the women as being in "survival mode" - that is, they were much more concerned with meeting their own daily needs than in pursuing literacy programs. These basic needs could include housing, employment, drug or alcohol rehabilitation to comply with parole requirements, or childcare. The Executive Directors stressed the need for women to be stabilized in the community before taking an the challenges of educational programing.

6.3 Is a literacy assessment done when a woman first comes to an agency? If not, when would the literacy needs of a client be identified?

Literacy assessments, as such, are seldom formalized within agencies. The need for literacy training often surfaces when it becomes apparent that clients are unable to fill out or sign forms, when they are unable to read the guidelines for halfway houses, when they are unable to write in workshops, or when they disclose to a worker.