MTML PROGRAMS > Parkdale Project Read

ADMISSION:  Free 

PROGRAM TYPE: Community Based

SERVING: Anglophone

REGISTRATION PROCESS: A placement assessment and meeting with our assessor 

INTAKE: Starting and ending the program looks different for every person depending on their goals. There is no official start or end date for most programming. We invite new students to join ongoing groups, and continue learning with us until they feel ready to move on. You will be made very welcome. 

ELIGIBILITY: Our program is open to students 18 and over who are fluent in English and have not had the opportunity to go very far in school. Or those who have finished high school but have barriers to getting into post-secondary programs. We are required to ask for a Social Insurance Number as part of the registration process. The first meeting is a chance to get to know one another - we ask you what you're looking for in a program and we tell you everything you want to know about us. We also fill out some forms together and ask you to do a bit of reading and writing if that feels comfortable.

ACCESS: PPR programming has transitioned to an online platform where we serve students remotely – we support PPR learners through weekly calls and video conferencing - offering informal counseling, information and referrals to mental health and other resources and supports. We are working one-to-one with many learners on literacy learning and upgrading activities, as well as supporting tutors in their remote work with students. We offer weekly groups via Zoom: Book Club; Grammar; Creative Writing; and Self-Care.

1209 King Street West, Unit #2 Toronto, Ontario M6K 1G2 

Adult literacy is: 

A welcome mat
Linen and towels
A warm hug
Friendship
Fellowship
People who know where you’re coming from
People willing to help
Freedom
Taking risks
One wide voice
Confidence in self
Bright life
Wind Ideas
People who are strong, courageous, powerful
Laughs and prayers
Smiles and slam Belonging
This is your home
Welcome, stay as long as you want
We’re glad it’s not children’s literacy
We’re glad there is something called adult literacy, so adults can belong to their own school and their own friends and their own type of learning
It’s not noisy like the high school or the primary school, running, rushing
Not something to make us feel over-bored and anxious and we want to quit
It’s stable
Not like when the rain falls and there is sand, and it goes everywhere
It’s on solid ground.   

Adult literacy has helped us: 

Do it a little better than before
Understand more and more every day
Learn and grow so much
Do a lot for ourselves - with no help from nobody
Be someone people can respect
Get back what we left behind
Pick up what we need now   

Adult literacy makes us happy: 

It provides us with things that we missed out on
It’s learning, diluted in a nice way so that we feel that we want to go on
Because a lot was taken from us, that was meant to be for us
And now we express our feelings
Like we are new people
Describing ourselves to the world
To other people
We are so happy that we can speak and work and write about ourselves.

“It’s so good to be connected again. I love learning together. I don’t feel lonely. I spend time with people I love.”  

“It feels like school is open. I am so happy to hear voices. It’s so good to talk, listen, hear each other’s opinions, ask questions. I am thankful to be here and feel the love and respect.”  

“This is not my second home, this is my first home. I am so happy. It feels like we are not alone, that you are interested in us.”  

“I was feeling down before group. We all come together for reading and writing and songs. It makes the energy up.”  

“When I’m alone I never talk, or laugh, or anything. Loneliness keeps me inside. When we’re with the group, there is learning, stories, something funny. What is on the inside, we can let it outside. It makes our day, our life. We need it, we need more of it.”  

“Today was like a cocktail - juicy. There is sadness, angry, love, art. Then it’s relaxing and calm down. I was like a bottle, closed, full. Now I’m much better.”