Literacy Christchurch (Inc)

We've been working in Christchurch and North Canterbury since 1977 (we used to be called the Adult Reading Assistance Scheme or ARAS).

We're proud of being local and committed to supporting locals and their communities - old and new - with access to quality essential learning: reading, writing, listening and speaking, language, maths and numeracy, academic skills, vocational literacy and numeracy, digital skills, critical thinking, problem solving - the kind of learning we all need to reach our potential as individuals, as whānau, as communities... as a city and as a region.

We design learning pathways with people to support their learning needs and goals in a context that's relevant to them - so programmes are as unique as the people who make up our community. Whether people are needing to get their Learner Licence, for example, or improve their Kiwi English for work, start their Te Reo Māori journey, help their children with maths homework, get their NCEA level 1 literacy/numeracy, or improve their academic literacy so they can finish a qualification, if people are living, studying, or working locally, we're here to help if we can.

We work with individuals and small groups - we believe in the power of kanohi ki te kanohi - face-to-face learning - and our programmes are as long or short as they need to be. We're proud of being a small and independent not-for-profit and we work hard to be as sustainable as we can while making sure our services are as good as we can possibly make them. We don't get government funding (we like a challenge!). Donating to us helps us to run free programmes and keep other fees as low as possible.