International Literacy Day - Reading Writing Hotline
Thursday the 8th of September is International Literacy Day ‘Reading the Past, Writing the Future’, SAcommunity contacted organisations that provide services to improve literacy in SA, to find out more about their work and how they help.
Organisations included the Australian Literacy Educators Association (ALEA) http://www.alea.edu.au/ based in Adelaide, an association dedicated to literacy and English language learning from early childhood through stages of schooling and tertiary education.
We also spoke to the Reading Writing Hotline 1300 655 506 http://readingwritinghotline.edu.au/ which provides an Australia-wide service accessible for the South Australian public. Find out more below.
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The Reading Writing Hotline, Australia’s national telephone adult literacy and numeracy referral service, celebrated twenty years of service in 2014 and has now responded to over 150,000 calls for support.
Support for individuals like 42 year old Christine, mum to five gorgeous kids who left school in Year 8 because she was bullied. Until she called the Hotline, she had never told anyone that she struggled with reading or how much it upset her that she couldn’t help her kids with their school work. Christine’s busy life made it hard for her to attend face-to-face courses so the Hotline teachers recommended the local volunteer tutor service. Christine is still learning but she now enjoys helping her kids get through their homework each week.
The recent decision to bring literacy teachers back in to staff the phones is proving highly effective, delivering a new level of experience and understanding to callers. A key focus for the Hotline is ensuing people know about the service and how to access it. A new user-friendly website has just been launched to provide a stronger and more accessible contact point for potential students as well as employers, literacy and numeracy providers and tutors.
A number of community projects are also being piloted in target communities. One such project looks at practical strategies to improve the service for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities around Australia. As part of this project a dedicated section on the Hotline website was established, with links to quality web-based resources for indigenous adults.
We encourage referrals from anyone seeking to increase their literacy, numeracy or computing skills.
The Hotline is funded by the federal Department of Education and Training and managed by TAFE NSW – Sydney Institute.
