Decoda Literacy Solutions, BCs provincial literacy organization, raised more than $45,000 during its annual September is Literacy Month province-wide awareness and fundraising campaign.

“Our tenth Literacy Month campaign was a great success, as we saw more communities proclaiming Literacy Month, more landmarks lighting up in purple, and so many generous donations from literacy supporters,” said Sandra Lee, executive director at Decoda.

“We loved seeing all the activities community literacy organizations, libraries and schools created to celebrate Literacy Month. We were also thrilled to receive news from the BC government about ongoing financial support, a one-time million dollar boost for literacy, and Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ request to the Government of Canada to add literacy to federal policies.”

Thank you to BC mayors and City Councillors

These communities proclaimed Literacy Month in September:

• District of Kent-Agassiz
• Fort St. John
• Mission
• New Westminster
• Port Hardy
• Surrey
• Vancouver

Team Trivia Challenge

About 100 people made up 15 teams competing in Decoda Literacy’s signature fundraising event on September 27 at The Butcher & Bullock Public House in Vancouver. The evening, hosted by CBC’s Dan Burritt and Decoda Board Director Diana Twiss, was filled with laughter. Thank you to Nice Guys Trivia and the staff at The Butcher & Bullock for their great work and service.

Team CBC Vancouver were the winners of the Team Trivia Challenge Cup!

Literacy Supporters, Sponsors and Donors

Decoda is grateful to all our supporters who contribute to September is Literacy Month.

Presenting sponsor

• First West Credit Union and its four locally known and trusted divisions: Envision Financial, Valley First, Island Savings and Enderby & District Financial.
  They matched donations $1 for $1 up to $10,000!

Community Supporter

• Rotary Club of Vancouver

Corporate Partners

• Blue Sky Clothing
• Marsh
• Motorola Solutions

Financial Literacy Partner

• Chris Chung, Investment Advisor, BMO Nesbitt Burns

Exclusive Broadcast Media Partner

• CBC Vancouver

The September is Literacy Month multi-media campaign (TV and digital) generated more than 962,000 impressions.

Corporate Donors

• Happier I.T.
• Leith Wheeler Investment Counsel

Community Donor

• Keith & Betty Beedie Foundation

Gift-in-kind Donors

• BC Ferries
• Everything Wine
• Mountainview Brewing Co.
• Postmedia Supports
• Radisson Vancouver Airport
• Vancouver Opera
• Vancouver Sun
• Vancouver Symphony Orchestra
• Wendy D Photo

BC Landmarks light up in purple for literacy

• BC Place
• City of Vancouver – Local Government and Burrard Street Bridge
• Douglas College
• Port of Vancouver
• Science World
• TELUS
• Vancouver Convention Centre
• Civic Centre City of Surrey
• Bastion Museum, Nanaimo
• Government of BC

Government support for literacy

Decoda is grateful to the Government of British Columbia for supporting literacy:

• The Ministry of Municipal Affairs provides $2.185 million in annual grants to Decoda Literacy Solutions to support the co-ordination of community literacy throughout British Columbia.
• This year, the Ministry of Municipal Affairs also provided a one-time boost of $1 million for Decoda Literacy Solutions to grow community programs and provide enhanced training to literacy practitioners.
• The Province donates $500,000 annually to the Postmedia Raise-a-Reader campaign.
• The Ministry of Post-Secondary Education and Future Skills invests $3.4 million annually to support 102 adult literacy programs in 132 communities throughout British Columbia.

Federation of Canadian Municipalities backs literacy advocacy

Literacy organizations are encouraged by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ request to the Government of Canada to add literacy to federal policies such as poverty reduction, health and connecting remote communities through broadband internet access.

“Having the powerhouse of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities behind advocacy for literacy programs is a huge boost,” said Sandra Lee. “This is an important recognition of how literacy can help address a wide range of issues.”

Community Literacy Month celebrations

Literacy organizations, libraries, schools and communities across BC celebrated Literacy Month with their own activities and contests, including StoryWalks™, storytimes, book giveaways, literacy packages, spelling bees, trivia, and more.

Literacy Activity Photo Contest

This year’s theme was “Literacy connects us!” At home, at work and in the community … literacy connects us.

Decoda held a province-wide photo contest. Participants submitted their photos of activities from our literacy month activity calendar.

Four individual entrants (Larry Wang, Laura Duursma, Phuong Nguyen and Tetiana Oliinyk) each won a $50 Indigo gift card and the Mount Waddington Family Literacy Society United Way School’s Out group in Coal Harbour won a $200 Indigo gift card.

B.C. Literacy Facts

• More than 700,000 people in BC struggle with literacy challenges.
• 45% of British Columbians aged 16 to 65 may have difficulty understanding newspapers, following instruction manuals, reading health information and other daily living tasks.
• 52% of British Columbians aged 16 to 65 may have difficulty calculating interest on a car loan, using information on a graph, calculating medicine dosage and other daily living tasks.
• 5% or 4,302 kindergarten children in all School Districts in BC were vulnerable on the Language & Cognitive Development scale of the Early Development Instrument in 2019-2022, and an additional 11% are at risk.
• A parent’s literacy involvement in their children’s activities matters for developing young children’s literacy skills.

Working together for literacy

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.

Results reported in the 2022-23 program year in BC show:

• 13,577 adults engaged in improving their reading, writing, technology and financial skills
• 23,458 adults engaged in their children’s learning
• 36,445 children engaged in early literacy learning
• 20,316 school-aged children and youth engaged in improving their reading, writing and financial skills
• 7,129 seniors engaged in improving their reading, writing, technology and financial skills
• 73,114 people participated in literacy related workshops, seminars and events