National strategy for early literacy: Invitation to participate

The Canadian Language and Literacy Research Network (CLLRNet) is working on a national strategy for early litearcy, inviting submissions and participation in a national consultation. From the CLLRNet site:

The National Strategy for Early Literacy (NSEL) is a Canada-wide initiative to improve the literacy skills of Canadian children and youth.  NSEL engages a broad coalition of organizations and individuals to understand and describe what can be done to improve literacy outcomes for young Canadians, and to put these actions into practice.  The conclusion of the NSEL process will be a coherent, feasible, evidence-based national strategy for early literacy, including a clear statement of activities required and of the organizations that must take responsibility for these actions.
The NSEL initiative is being coordinated by the Canadian Language and Literacy Network (CLLRNet; www.cllrnet.ca), a Canada-wide network engaging practitioners, policymakers, researchers and trainees in every province and territory with the common goal of improving literacy skills in Canada.
Public consultations relating to the National Strategy initiative will be held across Canada in March 2009.  These consultations will provide an opportunity for presentations that are focused on issues relevant to improving the literacy skills of young Canadians by individuals and organizations.
Parties interested in presenting at these consultations or in providing written input to the consultation process are invited to submit an information brief in advance of the consultations.
Information briefs should be sent by February 15, 2009 to: nselsubmission@cllrnet.ca.
Suggested Guidelines for Information Briefs
Submissions should address an aspect of the challenge: “what should be done to improve the literacy skills of Canadian children and youth?”   It is expected that most submissions will include the following components:

1. The role of the issue discussed in the overall challenge of improving literacy outcomes;
2. Statement and description of the specific actions proposed;
3. Discussion of the responsibilities for and mechanisms by which such actions would take place;
4. Estimates of the expected impacts of these actions;
5. Discussion of the resources required for such actions to be implemented;
6. Discussion of how such activities and impacts should be monitored, evaluated and improved upon; and
7. References to sources cited in and supporting the contents of the submission.

For more information, visit the CLLRNet site.