This April, our Executive Director, Faye Siluk, participated in the 2026 Decoda Literacy Solutions Conference in Richmond, BC, themed “Literacy: Bridging the Gaps.”
The conference brought together literacy organizations from across Canada to connect with one another and explore research, policy, advocacy, and frontline practice, while reflecting on the complexity of the literacy landscape.
Thanks to Zahra Esmail’s (CEO of Vantage Point) presentation, we were invited to focus on what unites us and to leverage the power of our sector’s work and impact (which in BC, contributes to GDP more than oil, gas, and forestry!). We recommend their 2025 report on the realities and needs of the non-profit sector: https://thevantagepoint.ca/sector-reports/
We also had the privilege of hearing from technology journalist Alexandra Samuel, Ph.D., who spoke about how AI often tends to agree with us or tell us what we want to hear. She emphasized the importance of being open to experiencing healthy levels of discomfort in our interactions with AI, since real-world relationships are often more complex. We highly recommend her podcast “Me & Viv,” available here: https://www.tvo.org/podcasts/me-plus-viv
There is so much to mention, but for now, we’ll end with appreciation for the BC’s Office of the Human Rights Commissioner workshop on literacy as a human rights issue, as it is linked to health, equity, and economic opportunity. At its heart, literacy is about social justice.
Thank you to the team at Decoda Literacy Solutions for the care and effort they put into organizing this event. It’s experiences like this that help us walk the talk, hand in hand.
