GOALS

All Trails to Literacy projects have common goals:

• Enhance partnerships
• Show benefits of applied learning & placements
• Encourage skills development
• Inspire desire to upgrade
• Learn in context of community
• Increase employability
• Build self-confidence & pride in accomplishment

Partnerships are important to literacy programs and their clients. How can literacy agencies make these associations more appealing and positive? - By considering what is important to partners and finding a way to help them achieve it. What is their 'cause' or need? How can we link to it? Getting these partners involved through referrals, volunteers or other supports gives your project and its goals a higher profile which benefits all partners.

Producing concrete results that the whole community can see and enjoy, promotes the benefits of applied learning and the positive aspects of community placements. Seeing a project well done by participants yields positive feedback from family, friends and the community in general.

The pride the participants have in their new skills when seeing the results or their efforts, creates enthusiasm for more learning. Encouraging participants to venture into new areas of learning, or hone skills they may already have, widens horizons for participants. Each success inspires an interest in trying new things.

Don't ignore the importance of the 'soft skills' that are learned in this participatory learning atmosphere. The communication, teamwork, decision-making, motivation, and other such skills will allow the participants to work towards their goals more productively and thus become more employable in the long run.

Letting participants set the course of the project and pick projects that are of interest to them individually, inspires the desire to upgrade their skills in order to achieve those plans and goals.

Expanding the participant's awareness of their communities and having them become actively involved with groups and businesses helps to integrate them more fully into the everyday workings of their community. It exposes them to more employment opportunities and allows the individual to feel more at ease and self-confident in approaching potential employers. This association also gives the employers a chance to meet individuals and get to know them and observe their skills.

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