Calgary, Learns, Shares & Connects Annual Report 2009

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Learn, Share and Connect Dear learners, members, partners, staff and volunteers; Please join Calgary Learns in celebrating a successful and inspiring year. Uncertain times in 2009 tested our resilience, and more importantly, gave our community a tremendous opportu-nity to examine our priorities, connect with each other in meaningful ways and begin charting a path to sustain and grow a strong learning culture. Calgary Learns understands that if we wish to support learning well and guide Calgary Learns to deeper relevance, we must be good learners ourselves. We had some important planning to do this year and prepared our board and staff by studying together the book “Governance as Lead-ership”. Many rich conversations later, the board updated the strategic plan, making the sustainability of our agency's work the top priority for 2010. The board also set an ambitious 25 year vi-sion: creating a foundational learning movement in Calgary. In 2009 Calgary Learns examined our role as the only local fun-der whose sole mission is focused on literacy and learning. This role comes with a responsibility to be wise stewards of our provin-cial AAET grant and to invest in programs that have the greatest impact on the most vulnerable learners. With the possibility of cuts looming, we seized the excellent opportunity to set our top priorities and to leverage support from other funding partners. We will continue to fine-tune our funding priorities and explore promis-ing practices in foundational learning with your assistance; this will be our focus in the upcoming 2010 community consultation process.

The strength of Calgary Learns comes from the people that help shape our vision and support our work; 2009 was a testament to this. We offer a special thank you to Alberta Advanced Edu-cation and Technology, Community Programs for continuing to entrust us with the important role of being the community adult learning council for Calgary. We thank our dedicated and passion-ate board for setting a 25 year vision and a short term plan and our amazing staff, the heart of the agency for bringing the vision alive. Thank you to our volunteers for helping us to make im-portant funding and award decisions, and to our members and partners who carry out the impor-tant work of linking learners to life-changing programs. Lastly, and most importantly a heart-felt thanks to adult learners, who inspire us all as we learn, share and connect.

Krista Poole Executive Director

Cam Stewart Board President

A Message From The Board President & Executive Director

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Membership 2009 “Your membership is invaluable to us at Calgary Learns. Your work with learners inspires us to move forward as an agency and your input shapes our direction for the future. Thank you members for your continued support, we look forward to learning, sharing and connecting with you for many years to come.” ~ Krista Poole

Alberta Health Services Ebrahim, Mumtaz

Alberta Network of Immigrant Women Elizabeth Fry Society of Calgary

The Alberta Seventh Step Society Epilepsy Association of Calgary

Ali, Faisal Families Matter Society

Anderson, Lorene Further Education Society of Alberta

Association of the Inside Out Theatre Project Hanlon, Jane

Behiel, Louise Immigrant Services Calgary

Benary, Edel LINKages

Bow Valley College Literacy Alberta

CAFÉ Institute Luxton, Dianne

Calgary Advanced Learning Centre Making Changes Employment Association of Alberta

Calgary Catholic Immigration Society Marson-Troicuk, Mary

Calgary Chinese Community Service Assoc. Mason, Trudy

Calgary Immigrant Educational Society Millican Ogden Community Association

Calgary Immigrant Women's Association Momentum

Calgary John Howard Society Mount Royal College

Calgary Learning Centre Osenton, Celia

Calgary Public Library Palamar, Cassie

Calgary Scope Society The Servants Anonymous Society of Calgary

Calgary Sexual Health Centre Stewart, Cameron

Calgary Workers' Resource Centre Szasz-Redmond, Eva

Canadian Mental Health Association The Vocational and Rehabilitation Research Institute

Centre for Newcomers Women's Centre of Calgary

Deaf and Hard of Hearing Society Youth in Motion

Dodge, Karen YWCA of Calgary

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Board Cam Stewart – President Trudy Mason –Treasurer Louise Behiel – Vice President Edel Benary – Past President Lorene Anderson Mumtaz Ebrahim Jane Hanlon Celia Osenton Cassie Palamar Eva Szasz-Redmond

Staff Krista Poole – Executive Director Jeannie Finch – Grants Coordinator Megan Williams – Communications Coordinator Clare Pludek – Accountant

Staff & Board “I am very excited that I joined Calgary Learns as a Board Member last year. It is a privilege to be a part of an enabling organization that is truly engaged in making a meaningful difference in the lives of learners - at a time of continual change and opportunity. The professionalism and dedicated work of the staff at Calgary Learns has made it a pleasure to govern! The diversity of thought and unique experiences of Board Members have made it a very enriching year - it is always about learning!” ~Mumtaz Ebrahim

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2009 Grants to Member Organizations In 2009, Calgary Learns allocated over $1million to foundational learning in Calgary. With this support, 20 of our member organizations provided nearly 20,000 hours of instruction to adult learners. Our funding comes from an annual grant from Alberta Advanced Education and Technology. Calgary Learns supports foundational learning in four program areas: Adult Basic Literacy, English Language Learning, Employability Enhancement and Community Issues.

PROGRAM funding provides renewable grants for ongoing programs that provide non-credit learning opportunities to adult foundational learners. Program Grants – Adult Basic Literacy

Program Grants – English Language Learning

Bow Valley College Evening Adult Basic Literacy , Academic Foundations

$30,120

Bow Valley College Lifeline to Literacy $16,729

Bow Valley College Speech-Assisted Reading and Writing $22,395

Calgary John Howard Society Learning Opportunities Program $57,144

Further Education Society of AB Family Literacy Program $55,373

Mount Royal University Transitional Vocational Program—ABE $35,771

Total Adult Basic Literacy $217,532

Bow Valley College Computer Enhanced ESL Literacy $32,170 Bow Valley College ESL Volunteer Tutor Program $23,595

Bow Valley College Volunteer ESL Tutor Training $18,803

Calgary Chinese Community Service Association

Stepping Stones: Forward into Community $44,574

Calgary Immigrant Women's Association Pebbles in the Sand $53,460

Calgary Immigrant Women's Association Canadian Pronunciation $13,144

Total English Language Learning $297,701

YWCA of Calgary English for New Canadians $111,955

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Program Grants – Employability Enhancement

Program Grants – Community Issues

Total Program Funding $954,225 INITIATIVE funding provides one-time project grants to research, develop and pilot innovative non-credit learning opportunities for adult foundational learners.

Initiative Grants – maximum $10,000

Total Initiative Funding $61,272 Total 2009 Funding $1,015,497

Calgary Catholic Immigration Society Computer Training for Employment $42,436

Calgary Immigrant Educational Society Computer Combo Program $40,882

Calgary John Howard Society Learning Employment Enhancement Program $57,754

Centre for Newcomers EthniCity Catering Training Program $40,500

Elizabeth Fry Society Bridges Program $31,000

Momentum ABCs of Small Business $55,200

Total Employability Enhancement $267,772

Association of the Inside Out Integrated Theatre Project

Inside Out Integrated Theatre $23,190

Calgary Scope Society Integrated Community Kitchen $5,563

Canadian Mental Health Association Peer Options Workshops $20,935

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Society Family-Focused Sign Language Instruction $15,425

Families Matter Society Community-Based Family Education $86,000

Immigrant Services Calgary Citizenship Learning Project $20,107 Total Community Issues $171,220

Bow Valley College Small Gestures: Settlement & Education Options for Deaf and H of H Immigrant Adults in Calgary

$9,994

Calgary Immigrant Educational Society Employment Skills Training $9,767

Calgary Immigrant Women's Association Literacy Enhancement for Senior Immigrant Women

$7,959

Calgary Scope Society Disaster Planning Course $3,922

Families Matter Society Conversation Cafes, Community-Based Family Life Education

$5,000

LinkAges Society of Alberta Silver Surfers $10,000

Momentum Mentorship Program for Unemployed and Under-Employed Calgarians

$10,000

Servants Anonymous Society SAS Academic Upgrading Preparation Curriculum $4,630

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Highlights of 2009

Calgary Learns has worked to promote learning, share stories of success in foundational learning and con-nect our community. Here are some highlights: The Literacy Framework Calgary Learns was excited to see the completion of Living Literacy: A Literacy Framework for Alberta’s Next Generation Economy. “Living Literacy” provides a framework for ac-tion that coordinates the efforts of the Government of Alberta and a number of community partners to improve literacy levels for Albertans. The goal is to move our population’s current functional literacy rate from 60% to 70% by 2013. Calgary Learns looks forward to working with our community partners to implement the goals of the framework which include: increasing literacy, building awareness, enhancing opportunities and facilitating partnerships. Comprehensive Community Institutions (CCIs) Calgary Learns is proud to be one of the 81 Community Adult Learning Councils (CALC’s) situated across the province. CALCs, Literacy programs and other community education providers play a key role in pro-viding adults with foundational learning and literacy programs. In the past a gap existed between the com-munity and post secondary education systems which prompted Alberta Advanced Education and Technol-ogy (AAET) to designate 11 Comprehensive Community Institutions (CCIs) to steward adult learning oppor-tunities in their region. This was done in an effort to align the goals of the post-secondary and community system by providing better access and transitions for learners. Our CCI is Bow Valley College, and we are delighted to be working with them to identify needs and gaps and strategize for new ways to increase learner access in our region. The Shared Training Initiative Calgary Learns was pleased to be the recipient of Foundational Learning funding through AAET. The agency is using this funding to develop a series of Shared Training work-shops. There are eight workshops that will be offered over two years. These days are to encourage the sharing of resources, promotion of knowledge exchange and provide an opportunity for agencies to discuss new delivery models and ideas. The topics for the workshops were se-lected through community consultations. We are pleased to have suc-cessfully delivered two workshops in 2009: Best Practices in Transition-ing Low Literate Clients and Promising Practices in Working with Diverse Learners. Thanks to Literacy Alberta and CAFÉ Institute for partnering with us to provide these training sessions. Video Conferencing Calgary Learns thanks the Community Learning Network and the iCCAN project for providing us with video-conferencing equipment and capability; this technology links community education across Alberta. We are thrilled to introduce this wonderful new benefit to our members.

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Summary Financial Statements A copy of the complete 2009 audited financial statements is available through the Calgary Learns office.

2009 ($)

2008 ($)

Statement of Financial Position December 31, 2009

Assets

Current Assets 475,766 423,031

Capital Assets 14,039 11,722

Total Assets 489,805 434,753

Liabilities and Net Assets

Liabilities 17,355 15,117

Deferred Contributions 322,402 273,518

Fund Balances 150,048 146,118

Total Liabilities and Net Assets 489,805 434,753

Statement of Revenue and Expenditures For the year ended December 31, 2009

Revenue

Advanced Education Community Programs 1,265,097 1,178,482

Other Income 106,500 83,966

Total Revenue 1,371,597 1,262,448

Expenditures

Program Funding 954,224 887,812

Initiative Projects 61,272 66,380

General & Administrative 342,221 314,212

Amortization 9,950 7,499

Total Expenditures 1,367,667 1,275,903

Excess (deficiency) of revenue over expenditures

3,930 (13,455)

200, 301—14th Street NW Calgary, Alberta T2N 2A1

Phone: (403) 266-6444 Fax: (403) 266-6449

E-mail: info@calgarylearns.com Website: www.calgarylearns.com