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Spotlight
Casting the Spotlight on passionate and creative
Canadians and the innovative organizations
that are making their mark in the nonprofit sector
and helping to build a better society.
This month, the Spotlight is on . . .
Parkdale Project Read
 By Louise Chatterton Luchuk
February 22, 2010
TORONTO, ON // Parkdale Project Read is an organization in the Parkdale area of Toronto that helps people realize their learning goals by providing free literacy services to English-speaking adults who want to learn to read, write, or use basic math or computer skills. Their mission permeates all aspects of their organization - including now how their board of directors discusses and decides issues so that everyone has the opportunity to speak, to be heard, and to fully participate in the decision-making process. In 2009 they were awarded a Metcalf Foundation Innovation Fellowship to develop this new approach that limits the use of written language as part of the board’s regular practice and ensures that boards are accessible to all members of their communities.
A summary of changes at PBR board metings |
1. Jargon-free minutes that include only essential information.
2. Minutes are read out loud in their entirety, followed by questions, discussion, and correction if necessary.
3.Background documents are kept on display in the program office.
4.If a board member requests information that is only available through a document that they have difficulty reading, the secretary of the board will arrange for reading help.
5. Budgets are presented with all information presented in three formats: numbers, pie charts, and pictographs.
6. Budget discussions identify and focus on choices available to the organization.
7. Meetings follow a fixed format agenda, organized by topic.
8. Other than time-sensitive items identified by the chair, no particular items are placed on the agenda in advance. No agenda planning on flip charts.
9. There are places in the agenda where any issue can be raised.
10. Speaking toggles are used to signal the desire to speak.
11. Staff ensure that the physical space is as comfortable as possible.
12. Seconding has been eliminated.
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The idea started, explains staff member Guy Ewing, with the election of new board members for the 2008/09 fiscal year. Although they had always had literacy learners on the board, with this new election, the number of adult literacy learners jumped from a minority to one-third of the board. “People on a community board share their commitment to a community organization, but they usually bring different kinds of knowledge and experience to this commitment. Some have professional knowledge; they may be lawyers, teachers or business people,” remarks Ewing. “Others bring knowledge of what it's like to live in poverty, deal with violence, learn to read and write as an adult. Some have experience with traditional board procedure. Some have experience negotiating solutions in community learning groups. All of this knowledge and experience is useful to the work of a board of directors; all of it deserves respect and a place at the table.”
Yet, Ewing has never felt that the literacy learners were full participants. Due to their literacy levels, they weren’t reading background papers and they weren’t familiar with procedures so when it came to crucial decisions they were usually deferring to others on the board. This just wasn’t acceptable at Parkdale Project Read, an organization based on citizen-making, social justice, equity, and consensus.
How did they do it?
Figuring out accessible decision-making practices was a matter of trial and error. A Parkdale Project Read staff person worked with a four-person committee of the board (including two literacy learners). The idea was that this board access committee would come up with ideas to increase the participation of learners and ask the board to try them out. The new procedures were evaluated by the committee and the board and at the end of the year the committee made final recommendations to the board.
What they found was that some ideas worked, others didn’t and some needed to be re-worked slightly. For instance, the original idea was to not have written minutes at all but rather an oral reading of the previous meeting minutes followed by discussion. Ewing describes a number of difficulties that the board ran into with this idea. Besides the legal requirements for recording board decisions, from a learner’s perspective, another problem was that literacy learners could improve their skills by practicing reading the minutes. The end result is that minutes are now short (two pages, double spaced) and capture attendance, decisions made, action items that came out of the meeting and concerns raised that were not resolved or addressed. These short minutes are then read out at the following meeting so even if someone couldn’t read at all, they would still have the information.
Everyone benefits
Understandably, there was a lot of discussion by board members about legal responsibilities. “One of the things we all learned,” comments Ewing “Is that a lot of how we do things is just based on how it was done over the years and may not be essential.” They also learned that reading orally actually works well for everyone, and reading out the minutes provides an important reminder of this.
Another key feature of accessible board meetings has to do with creating a comfortable environment - an environment that feels welcoming, where it is not threatening to raise objections. In this regard, Parkdale Project Read came up with an innovative solution. The genesis of the idea was from an unlikely source - a Portuguese restaurant frequented by one of the board members. At this restaurant, customers put up a red sign up when they don’t want the server to come around and a green one when they do. So, at Parkdale Project Read Board meetings when someone wants to speak up or ask for clarification they place the toggle (a cylindrical dowel with red on one end and green on the other) with the red side up. To indicate being okay with the discussion and ready to move on, the green side faces up. This system really helps people navigate their way into a discussion particularly if they have less education and than the person they sit beside at the board table.
It is important to note that this particular board makes decisions by consensus. According to Ewing, “There is always a danger that the chair will assume consensus when someone still wants to speak or ask a question; a toggle with its red end up will prevent this from happening. The green end of the toggle allows board members to signal the chair that they are comfortable with a proposal.”
A snapshot of... |
Who: Parkdale Project Read
Mandate/Mission: To provide a supportive environment for literacy learning by adults, 16 and older, who are fluent in English but disadvantaged and isolated by their difficulty with written language.
Location: Toronto
When established: 1980
Number of staff: 3 full-time, 6 part-time
Number of volunteers: 85
Budget: $400,000
Awards won: Wellesley Institute 10 – 10 Urban Health Award, 2008
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Sharing the knowledge
Upon project completion, the Metcalf Foundation expects that fellows will produce some form of publicly available work for distribution in order to share their learning with their peers and other interested people. In the case of Parkdale Project Read, that involves an upcoming symposium on March 27th at the Parkdale Project Read office in Toronto. Even though the project was specific to the needs of Parkdale Project Read, the purpose of the symposium will be to discuss the issue of accessible board decision-making and tell others about the project so they can take what is transferrable back to their own organizations.
It is essential to the mission and values of Parkdale Project Read to include literacy learners on their board of directors. “The literacy learner living in poverty brings in different knowledge than the lawyer. We want to gain from all of this knowledge and lived experience,” advocates Ewing. That on its own is a tremendous benefit; however, it’s not the only benefit they have experienced. Since making these changes, Ewing says it really is much more enjoyable going to board meetings and there is a greater interest by literacy learners to become board members.
Louise Chatterton Luchuk provides research and resources for organizations that want to strategically move forward. She is a consultant and writer who combines her love of writing with research and project management experience at the regional, provincial and national levels of voluntary/nonprofit organizations. You can reach Louise at info@luchuk.com.
Have you -- or your organization -- experienced a stunning success or spectacular failure? How are you creatively and innovatively making your mark? These are the stories we want to capture. Help make the nonprofit sector stronger by sharing your story and the valuable lessons you learned along the way. Email us today at editor@charityvillage.com.
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