Innovating Adult Literacy: Stories from Across Canada

In this episode, we're headed to Nova Scotia, Black Educators Association to explore an adult literacy program that is intentionally weaving black history, storytelling, and lived experiences into the learning process, showing how literacy can reflect the fullness of who learners are and where they come from. We explore questions like, how do you build confidence in communities shaped by migration, economic change, and strong cultural traditions. We have other questions like how does literacy connect not just two words on a page, but to identity and place.

The organization we’re featuring today is Literacy in Action, a community-embedded organization situated in Lennoxville Quebec. This is a story about rural resilience, minority-language realities, and an approach to literacy that begins with belonging. In today’s episode, we’re visiting English-speaking minority communities in Quebec’s Eastern Townships,  English communities scattered across farmland and small towns.  With neighbors often 15 minutes apart,  Limited English services,  Where being part of a linguistic minority can add another layer of challenge to folks who need support in developing literacy skills and accessing support services. 

 In today’s episode, we explore community-based literacy programming in Newfoundland and Labrador, where learning often happens in the same spaces where people seek connection, stability, and support. Across the province, programs operate in a range of community settings, from libraries and seniors’ residences to correctional facilities and community organizations. The focus is always the same: meeting people where they are physically and academically and creating opportunities to build foundational literacy, numeracy, digital literacy, and life skills.

This episode takes us to Winnipeg’s North End to explore how one adult literacy program is weaving mental health directly into the classroom through “Mental Health Mondays.” Instructor Chelsea Vanessa shares how her own lived experience with anxiety, depression, and trauma informs a learner-led approach that builds safety, confidence, and community, from support dogs and sharing circles to practical coping tools that ripple out to learners’ families and the wider neighbourhood.

Today’s conversation takes us north, where learning is shaped by land, culture, and community. In a place where traditional schooling hasn’t always worked for everyone, literacy is being reimagined through hands-on, real-life experience. In the Yukon, literacy can look like navigating a lake when the weather turns, reading the land to find your way home, or knowing how to adapt when resources are limited. In this episode, we’re joined by Mark Studle from the Yukon Literacy Coalition. We talk about what happens when learning moves out of the classroom—and into canoes, workshops, and everyday tasks. It’s a conversation about innovation driven by need, and about redefining literacy in ways that might resonate far beyond the Yukon.

In this episode we are travelling virtually to Prince Edward Island to a program Workplace Learning PEI, to explore how shifting demographics, new expectations for work, and rapid digital change are reshaping what adult literacy looks like on the ground. We talk about how programs are evolving to meet learners where they are, and why flexible, innovative approaches from open-intake models to apprenticeship learning supports and AI-enabled tools are becoming essential to learner success.

Today we are travelling virtually to a program in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. This is a conversation about adaptation, trust, and what it really means to meet people where they are. This conversation matters because the skills people need to participate fully in society have evolved faster than the systems designed to support them. Reading and writing are still foundational, but so are navigating technology, understanding finances, communicating at work, and adapting to constant change. In this episode, we explore what happens when a literacy organization chooses not to stay static—when it listens closely to community needs and allows its programs to grow, stretch, and respond in real time.

Today we're going to be shining a light on spotlight on literacy. It's a community initiative rooted in the Kingston, Galloway, Horton Park neighborhood of East Scarborough in Ontario. It all started back in 2012, in a small elementary school, and over the years has grown so much. Last year alone, more than 800 children and families came through the festival. What began as a way to bring the community together and raise awareness about literacy challenges in KGO has grown into something bigger a celebration of learning, connection and those small, everyday moments that could make a real difference in a child's life.

Today, we’re diving into United for Literacy's unique and powerful story—one that takes us inside correctional facilities in Canada’s Arctic regions. It shows how literacy and education can transform lives, even within a correctional institution. It’s a reminder that support, persistence, and creativity matter in ways that ripple far beyond the classroom.

Today’s episode takes us to Saint John, New Brunswick, where adult education looks very different from what many of us experienced in school. We’re exploring a wraparound, project-based approach that’s creating real pathways into the labour market—especially for learners who’ve often been left out of traditional systems. We’re talking about education in the context of multi-generational poverty, housing and food insecurity, and what it means to design learning for people who need flexibility, dignity, and real-world relevance.

Today's episode takes us to rural southern Alberta, in Pincher Creek, a community whose innovative approach to programming celebrates personal strengths and, at its heart, promotes connection with self. In this story, we highlight the incredible co-creation between indigenous and non-indigenous communities, whose partnership embodies this spirit of intentional, human-centered work. We’re exploring a powerful idea: that innovative programming isn’t just about designing courses or services. It’s an expression of personal calling. 

The DUDES Club started as a simple idea: create a safe, welcoming space where men — especially Indigenous men — could connect, share, and support each other. What’s grown from that is a movement built on laughter, honesty, and something our podcast guests call therapy over dinner. A movement that helps men strengthen not just their bodies, but their voices and their sense of community.

Reading Together is a partnership between the NWT Literacy Council and the North Slave Correctional Complex. Fathers and male caregivers incarcerated at the complex can join the program where they choose books, stuffed animals, pyjamas and other bedtime comfort items for their children. They will read the chosen books as a video, and mail to their child who can read along with the book.