Recommendation 3:
That local Elizabeth Fry Societies examine their programs to take client
illiteracy into account, and provide in-service training for staff at regular
intervals, to ensure their sensitivity to literacy levels among women in
conflict with the law. Short in-service presentations by literacy workers would
help to maintain the visibility of the problem, as well as allowing an exchange
of information and strategies among staff members.
Recommendation 4:
That C.A.E.F.S., in conjunction with local Elizabeth Fry Societies, lobby
provincial correctional institutions to provide appropriate literacy
programming for inmates. This programming should be carefully designed to
ensure that they are learner-centred, and that they reflect the learning styles
of the women they are aimed at. In addition, women in prisons should be
encouraged to participate in such programs through financial incentives.
Recommendation 5:
That one Elizabeth Fry Society undertake a project involving client
attitudinal training. One issue which emerged in the course of the study was
that clients tend not to make connections between literacy and long-term
employment. Rather, they see jobs as short-term sources of financial support.
Once they are in a job, and have the income, it becomes more difficult for them
to engage in a literacy program; thus, they tend to stay in dead-end jobs.
Attitudinal change should be encouraged among clients, in order to avoid
such problems. Such change may best be encouraged by modelling behaviour. The
most credible source of information would be a client or former client who has
taken part in a literacy program, and who could provide other clients with
personal testimony about her experience.
Recommendation 6:
That C.A.E.F.S. initiate a liaison with an organization such as the Movement
for Canadian Literacy, in order to increase the visibility of women in conflict
with the law within the larger illiterate population. Literacy workers will
confirm the isolation and invisibility which accompanies illiteracy; this sense
of being out off from the world is compounded in women who have come into
conflict with the law.
|