Building Relationships with Community Agencies - a fundamental strategy

It seems to me that how students find their way to BVC and the offerings of the Centre for Excellence in Foundational Learning specifically has been left largely to chance.  This is especially true when we think of students with basic literacy challenges or those with learning disabilities - these are not typically students who will pay attention to print advertising.

Having worked in the nonprofit sector for a long time, I know that the move is towards the creation of "systems of support" for individuals accessing a variety of human services... including education.  Yet the reality is that most organizations act as independent islands rather than as contributors to a sequence of services that a person may require.

I want to create systems related to literacy and have undertaken to invite community agencies to BVC to start conversations about how such a system  might look.

On March 5, we had 14 agencies working with adult literacy.  We discussed what our department is doing, the programs we offer and where we are thinking of going.  We expressed an interest in working with agencies and eventually have cross referals between BVC and literacy organizations.  A closer working relationship would mean that families or individuals who may be connecting with social service agencies for basic needs could be referred to BVC once they are stable enough to undertake improvement in their literacy and/or educational foundation.

Moving forward, I will be meeting with Persons with Developmental Disabilities Regional Board to explore how we might better draw the nearly 2,600 individuals funded by PDD to the College for literacy programming.

Other opportunities to meet with groups of agencies will present themselves over time.  I would like to take advantage of those opportunities.

If you are aware of networks of nonprofit agencies that connect with our students in some way, I would be interested in hearing about it.

Your role as an educator puts you on the boundary between BVC, the community, and the lives of our students.  Your insights are unique and valuable.  I do hope that you will share your thoughts on how we could build new relationships and address the literacy and educational concerns of our students - current and future.