Trainings offered by ONLC

Posted: June 26, 2008

Training opportunities offered

The ONLC is willing to share its expertise and resources with organizations, agencies & groups in Ontario throughout the year.

ONLC staff can facilitate a variety of professional development workshops for your staff or provide a dynamic presentation for your next conference. Speaking engagements outside of the province are also possible, depending on staff availability.

Call us today to discuss your needs!

Some trainings that are currently available include:

Aboriginal Inclusion in Employment Ontario: Developing a new understanding / Creating a new story

This workshop is designed for management and front line staff of Employment Ontario (EO) service providers in Ontario.

The intent of this presentation is to broaden and deepen the knowledge base of EO employees regarding Aboriginal people. With this knowledge EO staff can begin to work more effectively with Aboriginal clients in a mutually respectful, understanding and efficient process that meets the needs of everyone involved.

This workshop can run from a minimum of 2 hours to a full day and comes with a printed resource package and a CD of the presentation.

This workshop can also be adapted for use with other organizations who serve Aboriginal clients or wish their staff to learn more about the challenges faced by Aboriginal people.

E-Channel: Distance Learning in Ontario

The Ontario Native literacy stream, through the Sioux-Hudson Literacy Council in Sioux Lookout, has been the leader in E-Channel technology and programming for many years.

The E-Channel workshop outlines how distance learning was developed in Ontario, what it looks like today, the variety of clients it serves, the needs it meets, research being done within and outside of Canada, and future plans for expansion of both curriculum and client base.

This workshop is flexible and can be adapted to the needs of individual groups. The timing can vary from 45 minutes to 4 hours, longer is an interactive computer lab environment is available.

The history and challenges of Aboriginal Literacy in Ontario

The Ontario Native Literacy Coalition (ONLC) has been the provincial lead organization in Aboriginal literacy for more than 20 years. As such it is in a unique position to discuss the challenges of literacy within the overall Canadian population and specifically in the Native population in Ontario.

This workshop touches on the history of the ONLC, provides an overview of Aboriginal literacy issues, and information on recent and current research and development projects designed to move the Native literacy field forward.

Native Culture 101

This workshop is designed for those who want to receive some basic information about the culture and traditions of Aboriginal people in Ontario. It also provides general information on the etiquette one should observe at Aboriginal meetings, gatherings, Pow Wows, ceremonies, etc., to help people in these situations avoid inadvertently showing disrespect for First Nations people and/or dishonouring their cultural practices and beliefs out of a lack of knowledge about them.

Basic Native Awareness/Sensitivity Trainings

As the title suggests, this workshop is designed to build awareness of, and sensitivity towards, Aboriginal people and their culture.

It includes information about Aboriginal spirituality and belief systems, what living life holistically means and why it is so central to Native culture, the oral tradition of storytelling, and some basic First Nations rules of Etiquette to be aware of when working with Aboriginal people.

Prior Learning Assessment & Recognition (PLAR) in the Native literacy stream

This presentation focuses on a PLAR research project that ONLC undertook which looked at how prior learning was or was not being assessed in Native literacy programs in Ontario. The challenges involved in the process and the end findings are outlined and discussed.

Completing the Circle: Teaching Our First Teachers

This presentation is based on the year long federal project ONLC recently completed and the resource it produced

This project began with defining what 'family literacy' meant to the Aboriginal literacy community in Ontario and then developing a family literacy program that was literacy based, provided information on essential skills, and learning activities that are interactive and designed to be specific to Aboriginal parents, grandparents and extended family members.