Delivered on Tuesaday, June 3, 2025

With high turnover, effective succession, contingency and onboarding documentation/planning are crucial for the sustainability and resilience of LBS programs.

During the session, guests from the literacy community discussed what they have been doing and shared tools and examples to help participants develop practical file management systems, documentation and plans to ensure smoother operations, staff transitions and the continuity of programs in the face of unexpected challenges.

Insightful tips and best practices were shared to help participants create robust organizational documentation/plans and processes, and provide space to share various examples and ideas.

PRESENTATION SLIDES

First slide of the Virtual Showcase Session 2 2025 presentation.

VIDEO RECORDING

SHARED RESOURCES

Orientation to Literacy and Basic Skills for Regional Literacy Networks from Literacy Link Eastern Ontario

Hiring in Adult Training from Learning Ontario Central South

Human Resources and Succession Planning Toolkits

Living Manual Example (Google Doc)

Living Manual Example (Force Copy)

PRESENTERS

Carrie Wakeford, Executive Director at Learning Ontario Central South (LOCS)

Carrie Wakeford has been the Executive Director of Learning Ontario Central South (LOCS) for the past 5 years. Prior to coming to LOCS, Carrie was self employed designing and facilitating in person and online training. She also completed research and managed projects for the ministry and for LBS, employment organizations and the Workforce Development Board. Carrie also provided individual career counselling and taught in the Career Development Practitioner program at Conestoga College. In 2019 Carrie won the ‘Outstanding Career Professional Award’ with Career Professionals of Canada. Prior to that she worked in computer training and she managed an employment counselling organization.

Brandy Smith, Executive Director at Literacy Link Eastern Ontario (LLEO)

Brandy is the Executive Director at Literacy Link Eastern Ontario (LLEO) and she still considers herself new in this position after 2 years. Brandy joined the literacy field after working in libraries for many years including Kingston Frontenac Public Library, Queen’s University Teacher Resource Centre and Brockville Public Library. Brandy is dedicated to social justice, equity, diversity and inclusion. She has received an Ally Award for her work with Brockville Pride and recognition from the Every Kid in Our Community committee as a Youth Asset Builder. She enjoys spending time with her family and cats, and reading is her sport.

Melanie Burton, Program Coordinator, Academic Upgrading at Algonquin College of Applied Arts and Technology

Melanie is the Program Coordinator and Academic Advisor for Academic Upgrading at Algonquin College Pembroke Campus. She has worked in various spaces including twenty years in early literacy, 5 years in Employment Services and Ontario Works and the last 5 years in Academic Upgrading. If not spending time in nature with her partner, Josh, she is probably training her cats to walk on a leash … yes, really. Melanie believes that, like chefs, ‘slow is smooth and smooth is fast’ (Work Clean by Dan Charnas) and works to bring processes that will create smoothness for all team members into her daily work.

Alan Cherwinski, Executive Director at AlphaPlus

Alan has been the Executive Director of AlphaPlus since 2015, but his involvement with the organization dates to its founding. As a leader in the literacy field with comprehensive knowledge of the affordances and limitations of educational and administrative uses of technology, Alan advances an understanding of information literacy and blended learning that moves the field forward. He guides the team’s work with adult learning programs to understand, research, plan and integrate emerging digital tools to meet the needs of staff and learners effectively and creatively.

Bio coming soon.

Presenters from two programs share how they are using Microsoft OneNote to organize and manage learner files. Sara King from Northern College and Christa Porter from Gateway Centre for Learning demonstrate ways OneNote helps them keep all their learner forms and files in one place making it easy to access, replicate and share with others.

Sara and Christa shared some resources with us:

See more about the Showcase and the presentersarrow right

AlphaPlus creates microsites for programs.

We curate program-specific collections of resources. Here are some examples:

If you’re interested in curating a collection for your program, please get in touch. 

If you’d like a copy of any of these sites to use as a starting point to adapt and expand for use in your program, please get in touch. AlphaPlus can give you a copy and support you in learning how to use a website builder such as Google Sites or Weebly as online learning spaces for learners, staff and volunteers.

The role of resource curation is an important one and can be overwhelming and time consuming.

AlphaPlus developed this site to help literacy practitioners 

There are three sections.

If you’d like to learn more about curating resources, contact Tracey, sign up for an Educator Network program or sign up for one-to-one support through Coaching.

If you’d like a copy of this site to use as a starting point to adapt and expand for use in your program, please get in touch. AlphaPlus can give you a copy and support you in learning how to use a website builder such as Google Sites or Weebly as online learning spaces for learners, staff and volunteers.

A website is a great way to communicate with volunteers, learners and others in your community about what you’re doing and how to access your program, process some of the administration forms, and curate resource collections for staff, learners and volunteers.

Here are some sites that AlphaPlus coaches have supported:

AlphaPlus can help you choose a website builder and guide you through the website planning and creation process.

We can: 

Do you have access to Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 and are you wondering how to take advantage of all the features? 

AlphaPlus can help you choose and learn about a productivity suite that will work best for your program.

We can: 

Here are some examples of how AlphaPlus coaches work with programs on finding solutions:

Presenters from three programs share how they digitize and organize activities and learner files.

See more about the Showcase and the presentersarrow right

Presenters from three programs share how they extend learning and critical thinking beyond virtual meetings.

See more about the Showcase and the presentersarrow right

These energizing and inspiring Zoom sessions showcase how innovative Ontario literacy program workers and instructors use digital tools and approaches to connect and work with learners and colleagues remotely.

Each session features guest presenters who share their approaches, strategies and tips followed by a Tech Q&A to explore some of the digital tools mentioned during the session.

Yet another inspiration to try something new to help my learners!

There is a vast amount of knowledge out there and to be able to listen to how people are using the various apps/tools was very informative.

It was such an informative couple of hours. Many bits of information stood out. The sharing of information was so exceptional.

An environmental scan of LBS programs indicated that a number of different tools and processes were being used to track data across all three sectors, and while the tools worked, duplication and inefficient data sharing was a concern.

Sioux-Hudson, a community-based literacy program, procured and implemented a student information system called Orbund and found that the system meets their needs for case management and that they could successfully customize it to align with ministry data requirements and their own internal needs.

The cost of Orbund is prohibitive for an individual program but is more manageable if individual programs can share an enterprise license. AlphaPlus provided a three-year license to pilot programs who are willing and able to help identify gaps/issues and work with AlphaPlus and Orbund to work through these issues before rolling it out to other programs.

After seeing Orbund in action, staff in the pilot programs felt it will help streamline and advance case management administration. Read the report to learn how Orbund worked for these organizations and the next steps for the implementation of Orbund.