Paul Szmal: It is 8.15 on FLX Morning and we've got sunshine and a few clouds around. It's 56 and I have a pair of guests joining me today from Literacy Volunteers of Ontario Yates. First off, I want to welcome Liz Searle, one of our regular guests. Liz, good morning. How are you?
Liz Searle: I'm good, Paul. Thanks for having me again today.
Paul Szmal: Yes, much appreciated. And we also want to welcome Daniel Ehlers to the program. Hi, Daniel. How are you?
Daniel Ellers: Doing well, Paul. Thank you for having me. Good morning.
Paul Szmal: I want to start with you and find out kind of your story with Literacy Volunteers of Ontario Yates. When did you first become involved?
Daniel Ellers: I became involved with LVOY in 2016. I had recently returned from a trip abroad and I thought, you know, I want to get involved with people from other cultures. And so I walked in off the street and I said, you know, I really have no education and no skills. How can I help? And the program director said, well, you can become a tutor. And I said, great, sign me up. So that's it. That's how I got involved with LVOY.
Paul Szmal: And you started tutoring mainly in what forms or facets?
Daniel Ellers: So I started tutoring as an English language learner. They break it down between basic literacy and English language. So I was mostly an ELL tutor.
Paul Szmal: Ah, you stepped away for a while.
Daniel Ellers: I did. Yes. I had stepped away. I started attending FLCC and then I was going to college there in culinary. And then it was about 2019 that they offered me a position. Literacy volunteer is their office manager. So then I came back and then I stepped away again because I got hired at Office for the Aging. But I've recently returned as an ELL tutor.
Paul Szmal: So what brought you back into the fold? Why did you make the decision to come back as a tutor again?
Daniel Ellers: I, you know, there was just something missing. I was working full time, but I still had time. And with everything that was going on, I kind of thought, how how can I help people feel welcome? How can I help people assimilate as best that I can in my small world? How can I reach out and be, you know, show some humanity? And I thought, well, where did it all begin? And for me, it all began with Literacy Volunteers Ontario AIDS. So I contacted the program manager, Barbara and Canada and said, you know, I want to come back. I want to be a tutor. And I did.
Paul Szmal: And I want to make the point, too, that this time around, you're actually helping to tutor for GED exams.
Daniel Ellers: Exactly. I am. I'm getting my learner ready for the language learning aspect of the GED. And I have a GED myself. That's what it started. I got my GED in 1997. And so I do know a little bit of the difficulty that goes along with that.
Paul Szmal: And you've also worked with a little bit with digital literacy. Can you explain what that's about?
Daniel Ellers: So, yeah, it's really interesting because I didn't realize that there is so there are so many avenues of literacy, Paul. You know, there's financial literacy, there's health literacy, there is digital literacy. And as in our day and age, you know, we rely so much on digital communication. And there are so many people, especially older people, that need help navigating that digital realm, whether it's, you know, using email, setting up email accounts, setting up, you know, we pay our bills online. We do a lot of things online now. And I just wanted to help them be able to navigate the digital literacy field so they're not feeling left behind because it doesn't move lightning fast. It certainly does.
Paul Szmal: And I think that's something that a lot of us just take for granted and accept as a norm. And that's not necessarily the norm for people.
Daniel Ellers: That is correct. And, you know, in so many people, I've learned this through literacy volunteers. I've learned this with Office for the Aging, especially in more rural counties. You know, they don't have that access. So they're already getting, they don't have, they haven't had time to really develop that knowledge base. So that's what I wanted to help with that digital literacy.
Paul Szmal: And I would think it'd be a safe statement to say that you are happy to be back amongst the literacy volunteers group and doing the good work again.
Daniel Ellers: Oh, absolutely. Undoubtedly. It's so meaningful and so rewarding. And the work that they do is so beneficial to our entire community.
Paul Szmal: What do you define as a success story for tutoring?
Daniel Ellers: A success story for tutoring is helping my learner reach their goal, whatever their goal is. And that's different depending on the learner. That learner might just want to be able to read a book, read a book to their grandchildren or something like that, or write a letter, or pass the GED, or attend college. So whatever the learner's goal is, that is our goal. And that's what we try to achieve. And when they achieve that, that's our success.
Paul Szmal: And what would you say to somebody who's maybe on the fence thinking about wanting to volunteer for an organization? How would you convince them that Literacy Volunteers is a good organization and a worthy cause to jump in on?
Daniel Ellers: That is a great question. And I would say, you know, if you can read without any kind of effort, be thankful. You know, if you know math literacy, and maybe that's because that is another avenue, you know, if you're really literate in math, you know, jump in, you know, be thankful that you've learned that. Now expand that knowledge to others and help others. I mean, it's just, literacy isn't just reading and writing. It encompasses so much more. And I would say, you're not going to, you won't regret it. You really won't. I haven't at all.
Paul Szmal: Liz, I'm going to bring you in here now. And Daniel, I think has given us a ringing endorsement for Literacy Volunteers. He really has. And we're thrilled to have him back as a tutor. Tell me a little bit about the actual, some of the actual statistics in terms of literacy amongst adults in the area.
Liz Searle: Sure. And it's pretty appropriate to be talking about that right now. September is National Literacy Month. We had International Literacy Day last week. So it's really an opportune time to be discussing that. I'd say that one of the most compelling numbers, it came out from an updated study that was released last year. And they look at three levels of literacy. And they found that across the nation, almost 60 million people were at or below the lowest level of literacy. And that means they can understand very short, simple sentences, but they're not able to read and interpret a paragraph or do any kind of problem solving. So what's most concerning about that is that that number has grown since the last time they did that study. It's going in the wrong direction. So there's really the need to continue focusing on providing the educational opportunities to adults so they can increase their literacy.
What's encouraging to me is the data also shows that we don't have to move the needle a lot to have a huge impact. If we can help folks move from just one level, from the lowest level up a level, we know that their chances of living in poverty, for instance, is cut in half. So it's a really significant impact, as I said, just by improving it a little bit. So that's encouraging to us even though the numbers overall are not what we'd like them to like to see.
Paul Szmal: And that's the numbers that you're striving to decrease the amount of low literacy and increase the amount of success stories like the one that Daniel was currently working on here with his subject trying to take the GED and get their GED.
Liz Searle: Absolutely correct, yep.
Paul Szmal: If people want to volunteer with Literacy Volunteers, Liz, and they're not sure how they can be a part of it, who is a good point person to talk to?
Liz Searle: I'd say the first thing to do, the easiest way to get in touch with us, is to go to our website which is lvoy.org and there's a form there you can fill out. Tell us kind of what you're interested in and we'll reach out to you to talk about what we have here. We are looking for tutors to help with our immigrant learners learning ESL as well as our native speakers that are looking for help with other literacy perhaps with GED. We also have opportunities for office volunteers so we'd love to hear from you and you know send us your information. We'll reach out and chat with you.
Paul Szmal: Wonderful. Liz, thank you so much for being here and Daniel, continued success with your student that you're working with right now and glad to have you back amongst the fold so to speak.
Liz Searle: Thank you, Paul.
Daniel Ellers: Thanks, Paul.
Paul Szmal: It is 8 26 on FLX morning.
