An organization dedicated to continuing education and early learning will close its doors at the end of December.
Literacy for Life announced at the beginning of the month it would cease operations as it currently runs at the end of December.
“The amount of money that was coming in wasn’t matching running our organization so it just became unsustainable financially,” said Lindsay Snodgrass, one of three remaining board members of Literacy for Life.
Financial difficulties resulted largely from the economic decline, which she said Literacy for Life should have adjusted for earlier than it did.
In addition, a new executive director came on for only a few months before leaving Literacy for Life, putting the organization in a perpetual state of transition over the last year, she said. But that’s also when the board’s eyes were opened, she said.
“During that time it transpired the programs weren’t sustainable as we were running them and we just ran out of time and money to continue running them,” said Snodgrass.
The board hopes to continue offering adult education programs by July with the help of one of its consistent funding sources, the Community Adult Learning Program (CALP) grant, she said.
“We were approved for a three-year funding through CALP, which is for the adult learning, so we’ve already been approved for next year,” said Snodgrass. “So it’s just trying to tie us over until next year’s funding comes in and then having the staff to implement and deliver the programs.”
It’s important to try to get classes like Tech Talks, General Education Development (GED) preparation, and English Language Learning (ELL) back up and running because Literacy for Life was the only agency offering those programs in Foothills County, she said.
However, early learning and child-centred programming won’t be coming back through Literacy for Life, she said. That puts an end to programs like Building Blocks, Books for Babies, Nature Kids, Dog Tales, and a host of other preschool classes offered through area libraries.
“The earlier programs were largely supplemented by personal donations and corporate donations, just general fundraising donations, and that’s just really dropped off in the last couple of years,” said Snodgrass.
Literacy for Life has been in touch with towns in the Foothills, as well as local Family and Community Support Services groups to see whether there’s an appetite to pick up those preschool and early learning programs, she said.
Even if the organization wouldn’t be affiliated with the classes anymore, she said it would be ideal to see them offered somewhere else.
“Hopefully they’ll continue in some capacity with different organizations,” said Snodgrass. “We don’t want that big void of early education, either.”
Lara Grunow, director of the Okotoks Public Library, said it will do its part to fill the gaps left in its programming by Literacy for Life.
It will mean the end of classes like Toddler Time for two-year-olds, Rhythm and Rhyme for babies 0-24 months old, and Dog Tales for juvenile youth, she said.
“I think they’re hugely important,” said Grunow. “It’s a way for families to come out and to connect with other families in the community.
“You might think it’s just a class where you’re singing songs and reading books with your kids, but it’s actually teaching parents how to engage with their children, how to do some serve-and-return.”
She said Literacy for Life was also running adult computer classes and drop-in technology support for patrons. Those classes will be covered by the Okotoks Public Library, as its board members had already discussed taking on more technology offerings on its own.
The library also runs a program called Read, Play and Sing for one-to-three-year-olds, which she said covers most of the Toddler Time gap. She said they’re now considering how to accommodate those who would have attended Rhythm and Rhyme.
“We do want to see what we can do for infants and their caregivers,” said Grunow. I’m pretty sure we’ll juggle things around to make it happen so we have that.”
She said the library is also looking into whether it can keep up the Dog Tales program, which has elementary students read books to pups.
Grunow said it’s hard to say goodbye to a 16-year relationship with Literacy for Life. For most of those years, the organization supplied program facilitators and the Okotoks Public Library gave its space free of charge in order to make classes possible.
“We were one of the first partners and having them come into the library and do some programming, it has been fantastic,” she said.
In order to continue offering programs she said the library is willing to take on volunteer leaders to help mitigate costs.
It’s important to host classes for young children with their parents, because it’s teaching little ones to enjoy storytelling and also encouraging parents to engage with their children and share a love for reading, she said.
“Those preschool programs are hugely important,” said Grunow. “It will be a big gap, but we’re hoping – fingers crossed – we can fill it as well as we can.
“Okotoks is a young community and we have lots of young families who come and use our library, and I would hate for them to feel they can’t because the Lit for Life programs are no longer running.”
She said the library will likely have to apply for more grants to cover costs, and it could mean also mean going back to Okotoks town council in the coming months to request additional program funding.
