Literacy in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside

Our speakers this week were William Booth and Shanti Besso from the D.T.E.S. Literacy Roundtable.  This is a coalition of adult educators who work on the D.T.E.S. with vulnerable individuals who often have mental health or substance abuse problems.  It began in 2005 to share information, insure that there was no duplication, to identify gaps and to collaborate where possible and today there are 45 organizations that are part of this Roundtable.  Literacy equals employment and they have 70 regular students and 300 drop in students.  A drop in student will often bring forms that they need help filling out because of their illiteracy.  They offer workshops at Carnegie Community Center and are next working on digital literacy after 1700 mobile phones were distributed on the D.T.E.S.  They were thanked by Michael Frost who gave examples of illiteracy that happened when he practiced law.