Family Literacy in the time of COVID-19: Impacts Now and Moving Forward
“Family Literacy in the time of COVID-19: Impacts Now and Moving Forward” presented by Dr. Denny Taylor for A Women's Federation for World Peace Webinar
The following slides focus on “Family Literacy in the Time of COVID-19” were created by Denny Taylor for a webinar produced by the A Women's Federation for World Peace Webinar. You can download the slide presentation (PDF) here, and you can watch the full UN Office of the Women’s Federation for World Peace International (WFWPI) video.
Presentation Download (.PDF) Family Literacy in the Time of COVID-19
The following slides focus on “Family Literacy in the Time of COVID-19” were created by Denny Taylor for a webinar produced by the A Women's Federation for World Peace Webinar. You can download the slide presentation (PDF) here or click on the presentation cover image below.
In constructing the slides I was intent on creating opportunities for everyone who participated in the webinar to gain deep understandings of family literacy, and the impact on families of adverse experiences and mass trauma. My hope now is that everyone who views the slides will have a similar experience.
A Note from Denny Taylor
Before you view the slides I would like to take a moment of your time to express my appreciation and gratitude to the WFWPI for this opportunity, and especially thank Alexa Fish Ward, the Director of the UN Office in New York and the International Vice President WFWPI, for her leadership and her kindness.
It’s been a pleasure working with Tamara Starr, Director of Communications, and Grace Kellett, Administrator and UN Representative for WFWP, International. I want to thank the entire team.
This is a moment in time when many families around the world are mourning the loss of a loved one. We hope that by being together and sharing a common purpose the webinar and slides bring comfort to us all.
In constructing the slides I was intent on creating opportunities for everyone who participated in the webinar to gain deep understandings of family literacy, and the impact on families of adverse experiences and mass trauma. My hope now is that everyone who views the slides will have a similar experience.
It is inspiring testimony to the universal applicability of family literacy that UN Member States, UN Agencies, NGOs, the medical and private sectors, and academia, teachers and parents often form partnerships in family literacy initiatives. The beneficiaries are families, especially women and children, displaced families, asylum seekers, refugees, survivors of armed conflict, and families in recovery from weather related catastrophes and now the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ethnographic family literacy research on which the slides are based includes studies on three continents with families in diverse racial, ethnic and religious groups, living in poverty, in rural, urban, and suburban settings, in prisons and refugee camps.
Studies of families in the aftermath of catastrophic events include mining disasters, extreme weather events including Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Sandy, chemical and nuclear disasters, 9-11, mass shootings including the Sandy Hook massacre, and international armed conflict.
The slides focus on the ways in which families have responded in the past to other catastrophes and disasters and especially how they cared for their children. The slides provide opportunities for us to learn from the actions of families as first responders in previous emergency situations. Our task then is to ask ourselves how the actions of families in past emergencies can help us cope with the almost insurmountable challenges of the global pandemic that confronts us.
The slides contain insights into the many ways in which literacy is central to the first response initiatives of families when disasters occur, and the slides encourage us all to support families and to help them push down the risks for themselves and for all families living in local communities around the world.
Based on the evidence it is important to keep in mind that there are family literacy projects and initiatives in many UN Member States that focus on peacebuilding and the Sustainable Development Goals. For example, there are family literacy projects in many countries that focus on: protecting and advancing human wellbeing and ending poverty; ending hunger and achieving food security; and protecting the planet and building ecological resilience. These are aspects of the SDGs that will be the focus of the 2020 UN High Level Political Forum. Let us hope that the family and the role family literacy can play in achieving these goals is part of the discussion.
Now, I would like to encourage everyone to view the slides and participate in a global conversation focused on the rights of families wherever they live in the world. It is a tremendous opportunity for us to come together to generate ideas and explore practical ways in which families can be supported during the pandemic.
Watch the Full Video Presentation on The UN Office of the Women’s Federation for World Peace International (WFWPI) Facebook Page.
WATCH LIVE! WFWPI Perspectives webinar on Family Literacy! Join Dr. Denny Taylor and WFWPI for “Family Literacy in the time of COVID-19: Impacts Now and Moving Forward.” This webinar will explore the many ways family literacy initiatives throughout the world have been used to address local crises and now can provide families with opportunities to survive and thrive in a post COVID-19 world. This webinar will bring the human experience to a new place as the world reopens into a “new normal.” Participants will learn how to reimagine human connections and how to support and care for families.