A new program has been introduced across three Civic Community Hubs, designed to help improve literacy skills for people with disability.
The program has been championed by support worker Jeanette Cabrera, who has been part of the Civic team for more than 30 years.
She started her career in the disability sector managing a Semi- Independent Living Skills Program. There she helped clients with cooking, money management, travel training, cleaning procedures and personal care, and eventually her area of particular interest, life skills.
In 2018, Ms Cabrera started working at Civic's community hubs. She poured her enthusiasm and efforts into introducing engaging programs where participants are supported to learn in a fun, vibrant environment.
The Literacy Program kicked off in March this year at Civic's Masonic Hub, with six people joining the program, meeting each Friday for one and a half hours. It proved so popular, that the program has grown to include members from Civic's New Era and Liverpool hubs. There are 16 people taking part in the weekly program.
"It's a diverse group - all with varying skills levels and abilities," Ms Cabrera said. "We include everyone, and they are so enthusiast and excited to come to class each week and put the effort in."
She says important part of the program is helping people build confidence and improving their communication skills.
"We always start the class with alphabet work and writing out our names," she said. "This consistency is proving to be successful, and the participants really enjoy it.
"Learning to write your name, reciting the alphabet and forming small sentences, are big steps for some of our participants. They are so proud of themselves. Everyone is so responsive and tries really hard."
In addition to learning to write and recite the alphabet, the program also explores sight words, sounding out and practicing writing words in dot-to-dot tracing format. The group also learns about verbs, adjectives, nouns, colours, adding these words to the sight word groups to form sentences. In addition to using their workbooks, magnetised letters and boards are also used to practice writing words and sentences. Ms Cabrera aims to introduce home reader books to the activities.
