Survey Results 2025: North Islanders share community learning needs

Results from Mount Waddington Family Literacy Society’s North Vancouver Island Community Learning Needs Survey in June show that, along with reading support for children and family literacy programs, people are looking for mental health/social-emotional literacy programs.

“It’s important to hear from our communities exactly what their specific learning needs are,” said Charity Gillett, Executive Director at MWFLS.

“Our goal is to share these results with local organizations, collaborate where we can, and support our existing programs by incorporating food literacy and mental health/social-emotional literacy when appropriate. Learning about community needs also helps us choose the books that we give away. For example, we can prioritize books that support social-emotional learning.”

In 2018, MWFLS held a similar survey and learned that digital literacy and mental health were the top learning needs. The Society helped address these through the Connect4Work: Introduction to computers program, community adult literacy program drop-ins, and United Way Food Hub and School’s Out children’s programs.

The 2025 survey had 77 responses from community members in Alert Bay, Coal Harbour, Kwakiutl Band, Quatsino Band, Port Alice, Port Hardy, and Port McNeill. The 25-question online survey asked participants to rank the top three learning needs by age group.

“We were happy to see that the top learning needs for children (in-school reading support) and preschoolers (public reading programs) are currently supported by our One-to-One and Fostering Literacy tutor programs, and our Mother Goose On-the-Go for families,” said Kelly Anderson, Literacy Outreach Coordinator and Mother Goose Coordinator at MWFLS.

Top 3 Learning Needs by Age Group

Preschool (age 0-5)

• Public reading programs

• Nature/environmental programs

• Social/emotional programs

Children 6-12

• In-school reading support

• In-school social/emotional programs

• After-school social emotional programs

Youth 13-18

• Food Literacy

• After school social/ emotional programs 

• Financial literacy & In-school social/emotional programs (tied)

Adults

• Mental Health Literacy

• Food Literacy

• Financial Literacy

Seniors

• Digital Literacy

• Forms and applications support

• Health & Mental Health Literacy (tied)

A food literacy section of the survey showed that cost, limited local choices and time are the top barriers to accessing fresh, healthy food. The top three food-related topics that people would like to learn about are: wild food foraging, making traditional essentials, and gardening.

Barb McKay of Port Alice was the winner of the survey respondents random draw for a $50 grocery gift card.

The public can share their local learning needs and ideas any time by contacting Kelly Anderson at literacy.outreach@mwfamilyliteracy.org.

 

See the survey highlights below!

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About Mount Waddington Family Literacy Society

The Mount Waddington Family Literacy Society supports literacy and learning on North Vancouver Island through free programs for people of all ages, in partnership with local communities, schools, and organizations.