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.

You can visit RYALT's website here and get in touch with them here.

A snapshot of what RYALT is all about - some of our students enjoying themselves.

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Last week Patrick represented CNA at the Hapori Aotearoa – Growing Communities Together in sunny Tauranga presented by Inspiring Communities and the Tauranga City Council. A two-day conference focused on providing practical resources amplifying community development. With each day having multiple concurrent workshops there were difficult (and esciting) choices to be made. The hottest topics were Social Return On Investments / Social Investment, Te Tiriti, and (no surprise) funding within the Sector. There were great speakers and a lot of table korero, spilling of tea, and sharing ideas and resources. Did you know there is a Regional Data Explorer on the Social Investment Agency website ? How might organisations use this to target their mahi and applications? “The Social Investment Agency’s Regional Data Explorer supports access to data for regional and sub-regional decision-making. It brings together 70 datasets or 'indicators' which can be filtered to meet a particular need." Another great workshop (Belinda Gorman ) looked into connecting with businesses to explore various ways of funding. Looking at alignment, how to approach and creating that relationship. One contribution we were able to make was a handy dandy doc on how to use the free version of ChatGPT to create a start – how to create a document that begins your journey on support, sponsorship and funding. Here it is – Using ChatGPT to Get $. And it was a great chance to catch up with Members – SociaLink (also a supporter of the conference); Volunteer Kapiti and Community Networking Trust. It was a time to catch up with friends from other organisations and to make new connections, both strengthening our reach around the Motu. Whilst conferences are expensive, attending can hit many birds with one stone and its important to get out of your own area, headspace to remind yourself that you are not alone in what’s going on; that there are people with ideas around you; and that (while it can be a draining experience) it is a fantastic way to recharge your spirit. We look forward to hosting our Members at our Members’ Only Hui on Friday, 7th November in Te Whanganui-a-Tara /Wgtn for exactly those reasons. Oh, did I mention it’s also our 50th Anniversary celebrations? Patrick Davies, Engagement Officer