BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION
2021 Council of the Federation Literacy Award Recipients
The Immigrant Education Society (TIES) – Alberta
Operating in Calgary since 1988, The Immigrant Education Society (TIES) offers language training, employment training, and settlement assistance to adult learners. TIES offers many programs that have a positive impact on the literacy, foundational learning, and essential skills of adult learners while consistently raising awareness about literacy and foundational learning in its community. It also serves as a collaborative hub and information centre. TIES is committed to reducing barriers so that learners can access programs and services while partnering with other community organizations to provide the best service to learners in their community.
Pacific Immigrant Resources Society – British Columbia
Pacific Immigrant Resources Society’s (PIRS) mission is to ensure that immigrant and refugee women and their young children can participate fully in life in British Columbia, including through education, labour and everything community life has to offer. PIRS places a priority on responding to the needs of new learners and increasing accessibility in the community, offering English-literacy programs with childcare services and baby-friendly classrooms. PIRS supports learners’ overall well-being by helping them to develop social and emotional connections; mental health support and trauma-informed practice are main components in all its programs. PIRS demonstrates outstanding leadership through innovative partnerships, including through its “train the trainer” digital literacy program and by teaching other service providers to apply trauma-informed perspectives and practices to their work.
Fatima Malika Auktaeva – Manitoba
Fatima Malika Auktaeva entered Stevenson-Britannia Adult Learning Centre as a literacy student in 2019/2020. She successfully transitioned into the adult learning centre and graduated in June 2021 with a mature student high school diploma. Malika came to Canada as a refugee from Tajikistan. Her story is one of resiliency in the face of extraordinary trauma and adversity – a single mother of four children, Malika is a tenacious, self-motivated learner who volunteers in her community and helps her peers with academic and personal concerns. Following her time in the high school program, Malika returned to volunteer in the literacy program. Malika’s goal is to become an educational assistant, find reliable employment and be a role model to help her children realize their full potential.
Ashley King – Newfoundland and Labrador
Ashley King has overcome tremendous adversity to create a better life for herself and her family. Enduring a turbulent youth, she left school in Grade 7 and faced a series of hardships in the subsequent years. In 2018, she made the courageous decision to return to school after 17 years with the goal of having a career and being a positive role model for her young children. Though initially filled with anxiety, she excelled in her studies due to her positive attitude and determination to succeed. She is now a few credits away from obtaining her high school diploma, with plans to pursue post-secondary credentials in office administration. King describes her experience as life changing and is filled with hope for the future.