Work Shopping the Readers

Although much of the research and some of the writing has been completed on the first book in the series, the project team will use a ‘workshop’ process for the entire First Nations Reader Series by going out into the community and presenting the ‘works in progress’ to target families and family groups. Generally the creative process is not something that can led by committee there is a tried and true practice that comes from the theatre world where playwrights ‘workshop’ their productions as part of the overall creative process. This will work, we believe, for children’s literature.

There will also be a cultural review process where the content will be submitted to a number of organizations and First Nations historians to check for inaccuracies and cultural bias. We will also invite elders to some of the workshops to get their feedback on the material.


Early Childhood Development Workshops

The very process of our research program and asset mapping initiatives will result in a significant amount of community outreach and we will use this opportunity to promote Early Childhood Development Workshops that are centered on early literacy and parental guidance.

We want to open the creative process to the community and create a sense of ownership during the entire process. To affect this we will hold a number of special ECD workshops through the partnering organizations in and around Vancouver. We will budget for per diem expenses and honorariums so as to attract quality speakers and ECD educators to these events.

These initial ‘workshops in progress’ will be also be used to get feedback on the asset map design and layout, the Story Portal and the print resource guide for Aboriginal parents wanting to learn specific parenting skills surrounding early literacy.

Meetup (writers and artists)
The project will also use the meetup concept (www.meetup.com) as well as other community bulletin boards, e-mail and news postings to schedule meet-ups with the writers and artists that will be participating in the project. The project will promote this community driven concept of creating ‘special interest groups’ in neighbourhoods to share their experiences and interest in early literacy, story telling and, of course, their own favourite stories and authors.

Resource Handbook, Video Teaching Aid and Community Assets Maps

The project will produce a Resource Handbook and a Parent’s Teaching Video from the research and asset maps and will produce approximately two thousand copies to be freely distributed through the VNHS, First Nations organizations, Health Clinics, Libraries and other community and neighbourhood organizations

We will also produce a thousand posters of varying sizes and a series of brochures to promote the Story Portal, the workshops and the free works that will be distributed through the “A is Aboriginal” Project.

Outcome: Low cost communication program to promote early childhood reading in the Aboriginal Community, including small community libraries, free readers and video teaching aid for young parents workshops and an ongoing Story Portal to foster early childhood literacy.

Community Libraries

The research and asset mapping initiatives will lead to the identification of a ‘best readers’ list for young Aboriginal children. The project will fund up to a dozen small ‘community libraries’ in Vancouver. These free libraries will be in Native Housing Residences and co-ops, community centers and other Aboriginal locations that house and and/or cater to young Aboriginal families and single parents In some cases the library could be at the home of an apartment block volunteer and in other buildings where there are existing common facilities the early literacy library will be included in their common room. Others still will be in local community centers or Native Youth Centres. The project has a budget of $15,000.00 to start at least ten to twelve small ECL libraries.

Marketing, special guests and celebrity endorsements

Like any initiative, in order for it to have ‘wheels’ – to go anywhere - the project has to create a buzz in the marketplace. Celebrity Endorsements are part of the strategy.



Signing Slammin’ Sammy Sosa to a Celebrity Endorsement.

Student Practicum/Career Preparation

One very cost effective way to build community involvement is to take components of the overall project and to partner with secondary and post-secondary schools where the students take part in the project as part of their practicum or career preparation work.




A student practicum project focusing on energy conservation and transportation

Templates
The Story Portal will make available a number of templates for the layout of children’s books that will be free to download so that the authors, illustrators or teams can create their own children’s books online. The goal is to facilitate aspiring authors, artists and storytellers though the distribution of free tools and resources that promotes early childhood literacy.

Toy Workshop
Literacy toys are important. Because the project will be creating its own content it is a natural extension to use the stories and the artwork as the basis for other literacy toys.

From brightly painted Alphabet blocks to large format cardboard and wooden alphabet jigsaw puzzles. This will be an experimental component of the project and will have a budget of $6,000.00 to stimulate the creation of other toy designers from within the First Nations community.

Brochures and Posters
The budget calls for four or five runs of 2000-2500 brochures to promote the overall campaign. As well there will be one hundred large format posters to accompany the release of the free materials, the launch of the Story Portal and the announcement of the story competition.