Dr Franco Vaccarino

Researchers from the Adult Literacy and Communication Research (ALCR) Group at the School of Communication, Journalism and Marketing, Massey University, in partnership with the Wanganui District Library, undertook a major longitudinal research project funded by the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology, focusing on adult literacy and employment in Whanganui and Districts. Through a series of interlinked research projects we aimed to achieve the following four objectives: 1. To establish adult literacy needs of both employed and unemployed in Whanganui and Districts region. 2. To identify the social, attitudinal and economic barriers to adult literacy, numeracy and analytical thinking skills of employed and unemployed in Whanganui and Districts. 3. To evaluate how effectively adult literacy programmes secure employment outcomes. 4. To examine adult literacy learning processes and their relationship to employment. The Whanganui project group added their own further objectives, specific to gaining tangible benefits for Whanganui. These included: 1. Achieving positive, tangible and practical outcomes for the Whanganui community, with a well-researched plan of action for medium-long term 2005-2015 to address identified issues relating to literacy 2. Establishing a database of meaningful, relevant information relating to the links between literacy and employment in Whanganui and identify links to other social issues e.g. crime, health, and housing; and providing benchmarks to measure future progress 3. Developing collaboration between agencies within the Whanganui region, to strengthen the community and social infrastructure for future work and projects 4. Building the research capacity within Whanganui.