Literacy Network is an independent community organization, based in Manly Vale, managed by volunteers and established to tutor adults living in the Northern Beaches area of Sydney. We provide one-to-one free English lessons to improve reading, writing and communication skills to students from English and non-English-speaking backgrounds.
Joan Giumelli was working in the TAFE sector in the late 1970s, when she realised that many English learners were not doing well by being in a traditional classroom. She identified that there were two distinct groups of learners: migrants and Australian-born students. For migrants who were from a wide variety of countries, writing could be a huge problem because of unfamiliarity with English script. The second group had already experienced problems in school classrooms, so repeating that was not likely to be very successful. Joan then advocated setting up one-to-one support, where the individual needs of each student could be met. Joan became one of six Adult Literacy Officers in NSW, where teachers were trained in an Adult Literacy Program.
Once TAFE could no longer support this system, Joan set up Literacy Network in an old shack in the grounds of Frenchs Forest Primary School. By the late 1980s, supported by the NSW Education Department, it was operating from an unused classroom at the school. Joan had developed a ten-week training program for volunteers, who offered help to students all over the area north of the harbour. Teaching resources were gathered from wherever possible and stored in the office, tended by volunteers. She developed a tutor training program using her own Tutor Training Manual. The demand was so great, with students being sourced by word-of-mouth and flyers displayed on community noticeboards, that the formal structure of Literacy Network was set up consisting of a committee and co-ordinators.
Joan Giumelli was awarded the Order of Australia in 1997 and even after her retirement in 2012, her legacy remains.
In the last decade or more, a few changes have been implemented. Joan was replaced by two volunteer coordinators, then three. We registered as a not-for-profit charity, so our funding has become dependent on grants and community support. Literacy Network’s area of activity is now restricted to the Northern Beaches of Sydney. Access to technology means that our physical library has shrunk and student-tutor sessions may be via digital platforms as well as face-to-face. The demand from students has broadened from writing and reading English to developing listening and speaking skills. Nonetheless the vision to provide free and flexible one-to-one student-centred English tuition continues and Literacy Network remains a much valued part of the community.
Literacy Network, as a not-for-profit, independent charity, depends on volunteer tutors and management committee members to maintain its free English service. We thank all of them for generously donating their time and skills. The students, for whom Literacy Network exists, deserve our respect and gratitude for their ongoing trust in and commitment to our organisation.
By maintaining continuous and close liaison with relevant community organisations, such as Northern Beaches Council, including Humankind, community centres and libraries, The Reading Writing Hotline, TAFE, cultural groups and local print and digital media, we aim to increase awareness of literacy issues.
We thank St David’s Church Manly Vale for their assistance in accommodating our office, library and meeting area.
We are grateful for the grants provided by: Northern Beaches Council, Dee Why RSL and Balgowlah RSL.
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Acknowledgement of Country
Literacy Network pays its respects to the past and present Traditional Owners and Elders of this Nation. We acknowledge the continuing cultural, spiritual and educational practices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
