Family Literacy Day is next week and the Family Resource Centre (FRC) is hosting a couple of events to help families connect with this year’s theme of “let’s go green together.”
FRC, which is part of Hope Community Services (HCS), is running both a recycling bingo, and a town cleanup, for this year’s Family Literacy Day. The bingo is taking place from Jan. 27 (which is Family Literacy Day) to Jan. 31, and the town cleanup is taking place on Jan. 31, at 11 a.m.
Both events revolve around this year’s theme of “going green” and are intended to help kids and their families make a difference in their community while also learning about the importance of literacy. For recycling bingo, the bingo cards can picked up from the Hope Library and participants have until Jan. 31 to complete it and bring back to either FRC or the library. Those who hand in their cards will be entered into a draw for the chance to win a fun prize.
Meanwhile, those wishing to join the town cleanup can do so by joining FRC in the morning at their building. Gloves, bags, and pickers will be provided and the group will then go clean up around the town. Once done everyone will return to the FRC office for a warm lunch.
“It’s the togetherness,” said Stacey Meijer, a FRC facilitator, when speaking about why literacy is important for families. “A lot of it is parents and kids doing activities together that promote literacy. This also promotes confidence in children and they become better learners in schools.
“Literacy is still very much needed. And the biggest factor, (when it comes to children and families), is getting the parents and the children to engage together.”
According to Decoda Literacy Solutions (Decoda) families reading together is important for children as it helps them develop oral language, print awareness, vocabulary, and analyzing/processing background information.
First started in 1999, according to ABC Life Literacy Canada on their website, Family Literacy Day is an annual event that aims to “raise awareness about the importance of reading and engaging in other literacy-related activities as a family.” Though geared towards families and their loved ones, everyone is welcome to participate in the day regardless of their literacy skills.
This year’s theme focuses on learning how to be green or making “a pledge as a family to learn ways to be more green.” This includes using “less electricity, commuting together, and reusing items.” And, in terms of literacy, it includes learning how to process information about the environment and how to take care of it.
According to Meijer and Miranda Lane, there are plenty of ways to connect literacy with going green, such as through recycling, doing book swaps, or connecting with libraries. Literacy, they said, also helps with improving or obtaining knowledge on how to be more environmentally conscious.
“Literacy, from everything I’ve read, it affects everything. From going out and finding a job, your ability to help others, and how you view your ability to find information, regarding health, (work, and education),” said Lane.
Meijer said that events like these are important as it helps people feel comfortable to be proactive about learning how to read and write. Throughout the year, she said she sees people of all ages struggle with literacy and numeracy and feel either ashamed or scared to seek help around this.
According to Decoda, “more than 700,000 British Columbians have significant challenges with literacy.” Forty-five per cent of British Columbians, “aged 16 to 65, have difficulty “understanding newspapers, following instruction manuals, reading health information and other daily living tasks.” And 52 per cent of British Columbians, around the same age, may have difficulty “calculating interest on a car loan, using information on a graph, calculating medicine dosage.”
Literacy, and helping people get better at it, is a year long affair for FRC who frequently put on events focused on literacy. In fact, their biggest event is Storytime in the Park which takes place every Tuesday in July. The popular and free event, which takes place in Memorial Park, allows the public to engage with stories while connecting with their community, enjoying snacks, and listening to music. FRC also gives out books during this event.
To help with funding for the annual event, FRC will be offering Valentine’s Day and Easter themed socks in the upcoming months. Socks are $8 for adults and $5 for kids and all proceeds from the sales will go towards organizing the 2025 Storytime in the Park.
In addition to HCS, the Hope Library is also offering a storytime drop-in every Friday, from Jan. 10 to Jan. 31.
For more information about recycling bingo and the town cleanup readers can email familyresourcecentre@hopecommunityservices.com. For more information about the socks, readers can call HCS Executive Director Robin Wells at 604-869-2466.
