OLC's Spotlight on Learning: Becoming Agents of Change is an innovative conference focusing on how literacy can be a tool for positive change at work, at home and in the community.

If we want to create the ideal kind of environment for a more literate Canada, we require agents of change. We believe that this conference will be an ideal opportunity to showcase agents of change and to inspire our ambitions, and to offer practical advice to make learning opportunities possible.

Conference Streams:

Developing Partnerships

Today partnerships are an integral part of good business practices. We are looking for workshops that examine how partnerships will enhance our programs and services, drive outreach efforts, build impact and influence policy.

Partnership strategies will need to consider the current realities for programs, but offer new insights to entice and coordinate partnerships that provide a win-win opportunity.

Embracing Technology

Technology can be a very powerful and efficient way to reach a broad community of stakeholders.

We will be looking for technology presentations that transmit new information about the latest technology, and how we can utilize these technologies to make programming more accessible, engage broader communities and help us work together in new and innovative ways.

Learning for Work (Workforce and Workplace Literacy)

Learning for work encompasses the goal of improving the skills of workers whether its learning on the job or learning in order to gain employment.

Learning in the workplace has been embraced by several provinces with good results. We are looking for opportunities to showcase some of those practices – learning what worked, what didn’t work and why.

We are also looking for innovative practices and research that makes the case for workplace learning that support programming for the future.

Linking Literacy and Society

Literacy is a cross-cutting issue that intersects throughout many aspects of people’s lives. Through this stream we wish to explore the various sectors of society that are impacted by literacy and its relationship to access and empowerment of the individual.

We are looking for proposals linking the economy, health, justice, family, new Canadians, and areas that support civic participation, to literacy supports, tools, programming, and policy development .

Managing Programs

Becoming an agent of change impacts our programs and organizations as much as our larger communities, if not more.

Program management encompasses a myriad of skills, processes, programming, tools, policies and protocols. We will be looking for innovative approaches to program planning, lesson planning, human resource issues and solutions and much more.

Marketing Literacy

Marketing is becoming an increasingly important mechanism for advertising literacy services, connecting literacy with other service agencies and enabling upgrading and training to be part of the mainstream culture.

We will be looking for workshops that have built strategies for engagement and action through social and traditional marketing, current research, innovative resources and tools, and policy considerations as we move into this new frontier.

Profiling Success Stories

We change the future by understanding the past. With this in mind, we are looking for areas of learning that not only showcase what worked, but what didn’t work and why. Failures and successes are both successes if you learn from them.

We are looking for workshops to capture learning about accountability, community outreach, policy initiation, program and organizational planning, retention, reaching distant communities, and innovative models. Workshops could include follow-up to pilot projects, research, learning community activities, promising practices, case studies, historical perspectives, etc.

Recognizing the Profession

Within this stream we are looking for workshops and presentations that will raise discussion issues and explore all aspects of professionalization from code of conduct, accreditation and professional development, including future considerations of professionalization within this industry.