Ontario Literacy Coalition's Weblog

John MacLaughlin has a long and distinguished career in the literacy field.  He was the founding Executive Director of the Preparatory Training Program, one of the largest community-based literacy programs in Ontario.  He helped develop, initiate and manage Metro Toronto Movement for Literacy’s information and referral service for literacy and ESL.  He is also a founding board member of the Ontario Literacy Coalition (OLC).

Until this past year, John was engaged in community-development work in South East Asia, working in a variety of communities to help improve schools and training initiatives.  Last year, John became Manager of Program, Business and Partnership Development at the OLC with a mandate to work with the Business and Labour communities to address Ontario’s skills gap in the areas of literacy and language.   Currently, he is managing the OLC’s projects in the areas of the new Ontario Adult Literacy Curriculum, Workplace Literacy and Essential Skills, and Family Literacy.

I have had the pleasure of being the Executive Director at the Ontario Literacy Coalition (OLC) since 2007.  I report to and am responsible for the implementation of policies set by the Board of Directors.  In this role I am responsible for organizational leadership, setting of annual goals and objectives, and managing the financial, human resources and administration of the organization.

The joy of this job is working with an exceptional Board of Directors and alongside a charismatic and devoted staff team at the OLC.  Our community is also comprised of our members, partners and committed funders both through the federal government – Human Resources Skills  Development Canada, and provincially through the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities.

I have worked in the adult literacy field since graduating 23 years ago.  I started my career in Corrections, working with incarcerated youth, before volunteering with the Aboriginal community, in community-based programs as a volunteer coordinator and instructor,  in school board programs, as well as college OBS programs.  I have been fortunate to have both on the ground experience teaching, managing a staff development department responsible for training instructors, as well as managing projects and policy work.  This has given me the depth of understanding to see the many sides of this intricate and necessary literacy system.