Literacy Unlimited celebrates 45 years serving the West Island of Montreal

According to Literacy Unlimited, 45% of adults on Montreal’s West Island struggle with low literacy skills.

This means that nearly half of the adult population there functions below a level 3 literacy skill, which is the equivalent of a high school graduation level required to fully participate in a communications-driven society.

At a recent event celebrating their 45th anniversary, the executive director of Literacy Unlimited, Julia Asselstine, said the group had reached 8,500 people in the past year.

“It’s a huge misconception that the West Island doesn’t need help and are perfectly fine in literacy,” said Julia Chiarella-Genoni, the marketing and communications associate for Literacy Unlimited. “Actually, the statistic in Canada is that 19 per cent of Canadians are at a level 1 literacy and 49 per cent are at a level 3, which is basically what you should be leaving with at a high school level.”

Leona Kemp founded Literacy Unlimited 45 years ago. “Getting involved with one student and one volunteer at the beginning, that was the starting point,” she said.

“It goes back to the ’80s when the Quebec government was pushing adult education and of course one part of the adult education was the need for literacy. So I got involved right at the very beginning at that time.

“The level of literacy for people who couldn’t read the directions and the recipe or the medicine for their children. So just took off from there. Because in order to make good, solid decisions, they have to be able to analyze what the problem is and think about it critically before they can decide which way they’re going to go, which path to take, what journey to go on for the rest of their lives.”

Added Chiarella-Genoni: “There’s a direct correlation between literacy and homelessness, food insecurity, financial difficulty. Literacy is the backbone of everything to thrive in life.”

Kemp is impressed with the growth her non-profit has made over the past 45 years.

“The new programs that they had started up to address family literacy, to address the young children in school, to get them reading at an early age, working with seniors and helping them with computer literacy. But just that whole idea of developing, not just to know a word or to read a word, but to be able to do some critical thinking, that’s what the world needs now in order to make good, solid decisions.”

Josie Stinziani is a volunteer tutor with Literacy Unlimited. She shared her experience with the woman she tutors.

“This lady has never been to school,” Stinziani said. “So to me, that was amazing because I always took it for granted to be able to go to school. And this lady didn’t have that opportunity that I had. So she’s the one who inspires me every day.”

“At Literacy Unlimited, we offer one-on-one tutoring for learners,” added Chiarella-Genoni. “And it gives them the opportunity to reach goals of their own. So we reach them where they are at. And if they have specific goals that they are looking for, for example, getting their driver’s licence or trying to get their citizenship, that’s where we work with them at succeeding.

“I think it’s really important for West Islanders to understand that it’s a huge need in the West Island. It’s not something that we take lightly, and we are helping reach our adults in various ways. We reach them through family programs, senior programs, and the one-on-one tutor training.”