PGFL Grants Program
2024 Grants Program
The Peter Gzowski Foundation for Literacy grants support literacy initiatives to build capacity or enhance existing promising practices. Grants can also be used for operational expenses. In 2024, $320,000 was available for sixteen grants of $20,000.
We received applications from all over Canada. Each was reviewed for eligibility and scored according to the grant program guidelines.
2024 Grant Recipients
Alexandra Park Neighbourhood Learning Centre of Toronto | Toronto, ON
The West TO Literacy Collaborative tutor training project will enhance our capacity to deliver One-to-One Tutoring Programs by adapting our tutor training series to a hybrid delivery model, developing new volunteer recruitment strategies, and adding tutor and practitioner professional development workshops that complement our initial training series.
Centre for Family Literacy Society of Alberta | Edmonton, AB
By expanding the Literacy Links family literacy program to include families with school-aged children, we aim to bridge gaps in learning caused by COVID-19 and other factors. Our program will empower adults to support their child’s learning, through strategies and tools that integrate literacy into daily life for the family.
Cosmos Community Support Services Ltd. | Red Deer, AB
Cosmos’ adult literacy initiative enhances inclusivity with improved instructional effectiveness, supportive environments, lifelong learning programs, personal growth opportunities, and increased community engagement, fostering a literate, inclusive society.
Edmonton Community Adult Learning Association | Edmonton, AB
The Community of Inquiry: Justice-based Approach for Adult Literacy in Edmonton Project is a collaborative effort between five non-profit agencies, granting council, and academics to determine what we know, what we think we know and what we need to know to address the inequity and crisis in adult literacy programs.
Literacy Association of Nova Scotia | Truro, NS
A new module will be developed for inclusion in the Nova Scotia Practitioner Training and Certification Program to enhance the current offerings included in the training program and meet the specific needs of CLO practitioners serving Mi’kmaq learners.
Literacy Network of Durham Region | Pickering, ON
Bibliotherapy Durham is a non-clinical, developmental adult literacy intervention that promotes connectedness and wellbeing through guided reading groups. In addition to providing contextualized learning through literature and poetry, it promotes self-expression, self-reflection and decreases the social isolation that inhibits learning. This model is inclusive, responsive and fosters belonging in learning.
Metro Toronto Movement for Literacy | Toronto, ON
The Literacy Legacy Project: Educating the next generation of practitioners through a Training Tool for new and current literacy workers via a series of podcasts with retired and soon to retire literacy specialists. The podcasts will capture insights, gaps, and best practices around the 5 services that literacy programs deliver.
NorQuest College | Edmonton, AB
The microcredential, Everyday Reading & Writing for Life & Work, will consist of a series of self-paced, offline learning modules for adults in community and correctional education programs, aimed at improving foundational literacy skills, reading, and writing. Upon completion, competencies will be recognized with a sharable badge, increasing learner employability.
People, Words & Change | Ottawa, ON
This project enables PWC to update its website and create a new rack card and video that will ensure we have effective outreach tools in place to raise awareness of our literacy and basic skills tutoring program and increase the number of individuals we help.
Portage College | Lac la Biche, AB
This foundational literacy project employs diverse teaching methods and resources to enhance reading skills for adult non-readers with cognitive disabilities. Through one-on-one instruction, adults receive tailored support while community service workers gain skills to provide ongoing assistance. Collaborating with local agencies ensures sustainable and impactful training opportunities for all stakeholders.
The CanLearn Society for Persons with Learning Difficulties | Calgary, AB
The Basic Math Program helps adult learners develop numeracy as a life skill and a stepping stone to further learning. Learners are enrolled in group or one-on-one learning sessions based on assessing their numeracy skills and learning needs.
The John Howard Society of Manitoba | Winnipeg, MB
People coming out of prison regularly suffer from an inability to read and write at average levels. This is a barrier to successful re-entry into society. Guided by an Indigenous advisor, we will produce 25 free workbooks that support incarcerated individuals as they develop skills to improve their lives.
The Labour Education Centre | Toronto, ON
This project empowers adult literacy practitioners to create customized, learner-centred digital literacy curriculum, tools and resources, ensuring relevance amidst an evolving technology landscape, respecting learner’s pace, demystify the language of ‘being online’, and equipping learners with relevant reading and writing strategies to safely navigate the internet across digital devices.
Tillsonburg & District Multi-Service Centre | Tillsonburg, ON
The grant will facilitate the “Adult Literacy for Newcomers to Canada” program in extending its services to immigrants who are in dire need of assistance to enhance their English reading and writing proficiency, essential for their success in everyday life.
United for Literacy | Corner Brook, NL
We provide free community literacy programs to underserved Indigenous learners in Corner Brook, improving skills and confidence, and helping learners realize their full potential. Our programming integrates traditional forms of literacy into a culturally relevant context, incorporating Indigenous media, languages, and other cultural knowledge into weekly opportunities for hands-on learning.
Wrinch Memorial Foundation Society on behalf of the Learner Opportunity Group Society of Hazelton | Hazelton, BC
The Learner Opportunity Group’s Literacy on Wheels delivers free books to all communities in the Upper Skeena Region using a Book Bus. Many communities in this culturally and geographically diverse region do not have ready access to the Public Library. This beloved project has been operating for more that two decades.