At a glance:
The Immigrant Services Association of Nova Scotia (ISANS), based in Halifax, is a leading community organization that welcomes immigrants to Nova Scotia. With their community partnerships and team of over 120 staff, ISANS helps immigrants fully participate in Canadian life by delivering programs and creating opportunities for newcomers. Their programs help with everything from resettlement to finding work to language learning. Their Community Language & Skills team runs 27 classes, 13 of which are for literacy learners.
Programs of note:
The Program for Acquiring Literacy Skills (PALS) is the home of ISANS' eight literacy practitioners. Seven years ago, ISANS noticed they were getting more and more clients with literacy challenges in their English as an Additional Language (EAL) classes. These students had been in refugee camps for years: they had little or no formal education, and they could not read or write in their first language. They needed a different approach to learning English if they were going to succeed.
Cue the development of ISANS's tiered PALS program, which allows literacy learners to complete levels as they acquire the skills they need to join the regular EAL programs.
"Our trained instructors have a good understanding of what our literacy clients need in order to learn, so they can build curriculum that will be effective," says Jayne Geldart, Manager of Community Language & Skills. "It goes beyond reading and writing, listening and speaking -- they also have to explicitly teach learning strategies. We look for that light bulb moment when a student realizes they can learn in new, different ways. They see value in independent learning; they see their own potential."
There's an appetite for this kind of work that extends beyond the Halifax area. ISANS instructors run a 10-week online training program for EAL instructors across Canada who want to better serve their literacy clients.
Other literacy programs offered by ISANS include the Literacy and ASL for Deaf Students (LADS) program, and the Literacy for Intellectually-Impaired Students (LIIS) program.
Current focus:
This March, new classes begin for newly arrived Syrian refugees. This means more training and support for ISANS's new teachers, and upskilling in trauma and conflict resolution for all staff. Staff training like this is continuous and expected at ISANS. "Training benefits not only the learners, but also the staff and ISANS as a whole," explains Jayne. "It keeps our staff current, and keeps the job interesting and engaging. Their new learning informs our programming in new and important ways."
That learning can come from inside the organization, too. "Sharing of expertise between our settlement and literacy team is essential," says Jayne. "It ensures our material is effective, relatable and retainable. It boosts our services and makes them better for clients. We can't do this work alone-we need to collaborate, with other organizations and across our own teams."
Coming up next:
Right now, ISANS is expanding their pre-arrival supports. ISANS is one of the organizations who delivers SOPA (Settlement Online Pre-Arrival). Their Bridge to Work program for literacy and lower level language learners, a collaboration between ISANS' Employment Services and Community Language & Skills Teams, is also expanding right now. Currently, they offer language training combined with training in safety, food handling and customer service. ISANS is building new partnerships so they can continue to customize the program to meet the needs of their newest clients.
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