Tri-County Literacy held their Annual General Meeting on August 8, 2023, during which Dina McGowan announced her retirement from the Executive Director position after 37 years and welcomed Tri-County Literacy’s new Executive Director, Angela Vinet.
“I’m looking forward to the new challenge and the new role,” said Vinet, who was previously Executive Director of Sexual Assault Support Services (SASS) for ten years and has a marketing, sales, and business development background.
McGowan described her time at Tri-County Literacy as the best time of her life.
“Opportunities to do everything in education that I’ve ever loved,” McGowan told Seaway News, “Which means I could assess, I could teach, I could write, I could do marketing, networking, and so I always say to people I am one of the happiest teachers you’ll ever meet.”
While blessed to have worked with so many great staff, volunteers, and boards of directors, McGowan said she was happy to be handing the torch. During her retirement, Dina hopes to do some travelling, settle into condo life, and discover what this community has to offer for seniors.
“This wonderful team that works with me and has worked with me over a number of years are ready to work with someone new and take it to a new place,” said McGowan, “I’m anxious to see where it’s going.”
During the meeting, McGowan took some time to update everyone on the activities of the organization over the last year. Like many organizations, Tri-County Literacy has been tasked with returning to the ‘new normal’ post pandemic, which means navigating remote work, zoom meetings, and returning to in-person classes and meetings after restrictions lifted.
After the pandemic, referrals from other organizations were not enough to meet the organization’s enrollment requirements. To adapt, Tri-County Literacy designed new posters, strategically sent out press releases, tested advertising effectiveness, and learned about the advantages of social media and video promotion.
Through a grant called Career Creations, three new training programs and curriculum were developed and shared with the literacy field. Cashier, food service, and transportation training curriculums were field tested and successful participants were referred to Job Zone for career placements. As part of the grant application, Tri-County Literacy requested that the cost of new shoes be covered for participants who would need them to start their new careers.
“I was privileged to accompany the learners to Mark’s Work Warehouse where they could spend $150 each for their shoes,” explained McGowan, “Mark’s recommended appropriate shoes while most learners reported they had never had such expensive and comfortable shoes.”
Career Creations resulted in 33% of participants being hired into jobs while another 10% continued into further education and/or training. All individuals registered for these programs had self-identified with a disability.
Two existing grant-funded programs came to successful completions: Take the Wheel, a bilingual marketing campaign recruiting women and youth into trucking careers, and Mental Gymnastics, training to help seniors maintain cognition. The latter was offered in a variety of settings including local retirement homes and the Legion.
Tri-County Literacy also announced that they will complete a special project for the City of Cornwall in the fall. To ensure user-friendliness, Tri-County Literacy will review the city’s newly proposed bylaw document to verify that it uses plain language. The organization is looking forward to this partnership and hopes it will lead to further work with the City of Cornwall.
