Decoda Literacy Solutions is excited to share our updated Strategic Plan for 2022-2025.

In 2022, the Decoda Literacy board and staff team worked together to examine the strengths, challenges, opportunities and achievements of Decoda Literacy Solutions, as a guide to planning for the future.

We also conducted a survey for program partners, practitioners and steward organizations for input to our strategic planning.

We considered the impacts of the pandemic, labour changes, new refugees and immigrants, and the importance of prioritizing diversity, equity and inclusion.

Together, we updated our vision and values, and set three strategic goals, with clear objectives, actions and desired outcomes.

“Our planning session was energizing,” said, Decoda Foundation Board Chair Dr. Valerie Overgaard. “We had a great collaboration with staff and board sharing their passion for Decoda and its future. I think we left feeling as though we are in a great place for the future of the organization.”

You can find all the details in our 2022-2025 Strategic Plan document.

Here are the highlights:

Key Challenges

We identified four key challenges related to literacy advocacy, growth and funding:

1. Limited capacity for program growth; labour market challenges in communities
2. Literacy strategies are spread among a variety of Ministries in BC
3. Greater need to demonstrate outcomes and evaluate Decoda’s programs and services
4. Funding uncertainty

Opportunities

We explored our opportunities to:

• Continue to align data collection with government priorities
• Increase use of the Literacy Outreach Network
• Help shape Provincial priorities
• Continue to raise awareness
• Explore partnerships and collaboration opportunities
• Continue to strengthen fund development capacity
• Develop a clear strategy for prioritizing programs and services and staff time

Strategic Goals

To guide Decoda in responding to these opportunities and challenges, the board and staff team identified three broad strategic goals that will drive the organization over the next three years. In the full strategic plan, each goal is supported by a list of key objectives and actions, and desired outcomes.

1. Ensure Decoda is known as the hub for literacy support in BC. Decoda is a living repository for best practices, key resources, training and support for all of BC’s literacy practitioners and a powerful vehicle for demonstrating the importance of literacy and the value of literacy programming across BC. We plan to increase our public profile by celebrating impacts and clearly articulating our role in supporting literacy practitioners.
2. Ensure Decoda’s financial and organizational sustainability. A plan to ensure Decoda’s ongoing success, both financially and organizationally, will outline important considerations such as how to strengthen internal capacity across the organization, set clear priorities to guide future growth and establish a sustainable funding base.
3. Demonstrate excellence in leading and advancing the literacy field in BC. Decoda aims to align with the mandates of its government partners, to collect data and report on key impacts, trends and challenges across the province, to leverage support for its work, as well as for the literacy field in general. Decoda can take the lead in shaping provincial priorities towards developing a holistic and coordinated approach to literacy in BC. Supporting communities with current labour market demands will be a key driver.

Decoda staff are excited to work towards these goals to ensure future sustainability, support and advancement of literacy in British Columbia.

“In my first year with Decoda, I was happy to be a part of the collaboration with the staff and board to refine our vision and values, and to set goals that will strengthen the literacy community,” said Sandra Lee, Decoda’s executive director. “We focus on our leadership role supporting literacy practitioners, while considering the diversity of BC communities, and advocating for sustainable literacy support.”

With our challenges and new goals in mind, we updated our vision to reflect that communities have unique literacy needs. We also updated our values, adding Inclusion, Resiliency and Integrity, and retained our values of Optimism and Collaboration.

Vision

A British Columbia where everyone has the literacy skills to thrive in their communities.

Values

Inclusion

• Addressing racism and settler colonialism in our programs and approaches to our work
• Understanding our path to reconciliation with Indigenous peoples
• Promoting an “everyone is welcome” approach in our workplace

Resiliency

• Raising the profile of the importance of literacy in challenging circumstances
• Developing innovative solutions and approaches
• Taking action and risks to address complex situations

Integrity

• Demonstrating accountability and outcomes based on key measures
• Demonstrating responsibilities to ourselves, our clients and our stakeholders

Optimism

• Believing in the potential of people to succeed in their lives
• Taking a strengths-based approach to our relationships and work
• Focusing on learning and achieving and providing relevant workable solutions

Collaboration

• Recognizing the diversity of our clients, stakeholders and audiences
• Demonstrating responsiveness to our clients and their unique needs and circumstances
• Engaging in the process of creating solutions together

Read the complete 2022-2025 Strategic Plan

About us

Decoda Literacy Solutions is BC’s provincial literacy organization. We support community-based literacy programs and initiatives in over 400 communities across BC by providing resources, training and funds.

Our work supports children and families, youth, adults, Indigenous and immigrant communities to help build strong individuals, strong families and strong communities.