Meet the Members: The Rural Youth and Adult Literacy Trust
Ciara OCallaghan • April 12, 2022
CNA is proud to spotlight our incredible member organisation The Rural Youth and Adult Literacy Trust (RYALT). RYALT provides training in literacy for isolated rural adults and teenagers. The Trust has operated from premises in Port Waikato since August 2011.
We asked Bruce Fincham, RYALT's Community Coordinator, a few questions about what RYALT are about and the mahi they do!
Who are you, and what do you do?
The Rural Youth and Adult Literacy Trust is a non-profit charity that assists adults and teenagers living in rural or otherwise isolated areas by improving their literacy - reading, writing, and numeracy via volunteer coaches trained by the trust. Tuition is free, and our tutors coach by phone, video conferencing like Zoom or Google Meet and face-to-face to meet the student’s needs.
What areas do you cover, and who are your communities?
There is nowhere in New Zealand that is too far away for us to help a student. We work with students in rural communities who may live in isolated areas and would struggle to get to literacy centers in metropolitan areas.
Our students are adults and teenagers who have had struggles in life and the education process and have not had a successful outcome and left school for many varied reasons. Some of these students have lost faith in the education system and need to have that faith rebuilt. They do not want people to know about their struggles and are often embarrassed.
The Trust is fully aware of the faith and trust issues and works to rebuild confidence in education. We encourage learning at the student's pace, with compassionate coaches in a one-on-one student-coach environment, which goes a long way to rebuilding confidence, trust, and the desire to improve literacy and become worthwhile members of the community who can fully participate.
Regarding the pandemic, what response are you most proud of?
The proudest moment of the pandemic was the pulling together of the students and coaches to continue with literacy learning—seamless teamwork.
What innovations do you use (either something you have created, had to create, or found out about that really helps you deliver)?
We are primarily a cloud-based organisation. We have a wiki of resources for our volunteers to access, our volunteer training is online, and several staff were working remotely from home long before lockdowns forced that on people.
We find working with remote students exciting these days. Most of our students live a long way from their volunteer coaches. Once, we used to have to post envelopes to students so they could send their writing to their coach by mail. Now, most students have smartphones and can take photos of their writing to send to their coach. The coach and student can share readings during a Zoom call.
We also help our students get onto Skinny JUMP to get cheap internet. That way, they can talk to their coach on Zoom instead of by phone.
What most excites you about your organisation’s future?
Before becoming involved in literacy education through the trust about two years ago, I was not aware of the literacy issues that faced our communities in New Zealand. UNICEF New Zealand's New Report Card dated 3 September 2020 shows that New Zealand is failing its children. New Zealand ranks 35th out of 41 countries for child wellbeing, with 64.6% of 15-year-olds in New Zealand having basic proficiency in reading and maths. Landing New Zealand with an ‘F’ report card.
I coach three students voluntarily, a man in his 30s and two teenage boys who have dropped out of the education system and were very anti schooling and education. However, after two years, all three are making excellent progress in improving their reading and writing. They are so involved in our literacy sessions that they are now very reluctant to have time out and miss any weekly sessions.
With the Rural Youth and Adult Literacy Trust getting engagement from students like the examples above, we have an exciting future adding value to the individual student and our communities throughout Aotearoa New Zealand.
A snapshot of what RYALT is all about - some of our students enjoying themselves.
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