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Rene Merkel, instructor at VCC and the learning centre at The LivingRoom, and William Oksanen, manager of The LivingRoom. |
A recent partnership between the Basic Education Department of Vancouver Community College (VCC) and the Lookout Society has led to the pilot of a new learning centre at The LivingRoom (524 Powell St.), specifically focused on learners who use The LivingRoom and/or live in buildings supervised by the Lookout. The partnership between VCC and the Lookout evolved organically out of the college’s desire to maintain a connection with the Downtown Eastside community, and the expressed interest by staff at The LivingRoom to have a fundamental literacy class. Since September 2011, free classes have been held at The LivingRoom on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. Learners are provided with help in reading, writing, computers, and math by Rene Merkel, the class instructor, and Jessica Jessome, a staff member at The LivingRoom.
Recruitment of students began in September with Rene spending time at The LivingRoom Drop-In Centre and getting to know the people who frequented there. Rene also recruited new students by literally knocking on the doors of residents living in Lookout housing units. She explained that when working with reluctant learners, “often a one-on-one connection is needed before a prospective student will cross the threshold”.
The new learning centre at the LivingRoom currently has 5 to 6 students regularly attending at any one time. Rene expects the number to increase in the new year. Located on the second floor of The LivingRoom and complemented by a kitchenette, the learning centre is resourced with self-paced materials and several laptops, both provided by VCC. As the class instructor, Rene says that she sees her role as encouraging people to come and learn, as well as to provide them with the ability to be lifelong learners. And already, she has observed successes in the students’ learning. A student who was at first hesitant to learn how to use a computer is now typing out his answers to reading comprehension questions on a laptop. Another student, working mostly on math questions, has reminded himself of what he learned in the past in order to solve the problems. Rene says that she has seen a student with a severe hearing impairment increase her vocabulary each class by using the Oxford Picture Dictionary to write out sentences describing the events in different pictures stories.
Yet despite these many successes, Rene still has questions around how to best support learners at the new learning centre, especially those who have challenges with routine or who feel uneasy in enclosed spaces.
One area, however, that holds no question for Rene is the importance of having multiple learning centres in the Downtown Eastside which can support the many kinds of learners in the community. As Rene said with a smile, “There’s no one size fits all here. We need different centres for the different learners.”
