Frequently Asked Questions

Youth Teaching Adults is a free introductory digital literacy program for adult learners, led by youth volunteer-tutors. The program is run in partnership by ABC Life Literacy Canada (ABC) and Youth Empowering Parents (YEP). Anyone looking to share digital literacy education by bringing free programming to their community can host a workshop. Workshop materials are available online and can be adapted according to the needs of individual groups. 

All YTA workshops are completely free for organizations to run. Simply sign up online to access the free online workshop materials. In fact, we’ll provide an honorarium of $100 to the first 100 host organizations that run the program. All we ask is that you submit completed surveys from your learners, volunteer-tutors, and facilitators.

Absolutely! YTA is designed to be flexible and is relevant for all adult learners who wish to improve their basic digital literacy skills.

We currently have over 50 lesson plans to choose from in English and French, and we’re always adding more.

To run a YTA workshop, you’ll need to bring together two groups of people: adult learners who want to learn about digital literacy, and youth volunteer-tutors who want to teach adults about digital literacy. We can help you connect with a partner organization to recruit adult learners or youth volunteer-tutors.

Additionally, you’ll need to provide a space for the workshop to take place, and devices if the adult learners aren’t bringing their own computers, tablets or cell phones.

If you’d like to connect with a partner organization to recruit adult learners or youth volunteer-tutors, we can help. When booking your workshop, simply indicate that you need help connecting with a partner organization. If you’d like to do your own recruiting instead, we completely support that as well.

Your adult learners can always bring their own devices to YTA workshops. If you require more space or access to desktop computers, try contacting your local library or community centre to reserve space.

The facilitator is a staff member or volunteer from your organization. They act as a “coach,” supervising and supporting the tutor/learner pairs during the workshop. The facilitator is also the main point of contact with ABC.

The youth volunteer-tutors are young volunteers recruited from a youth-serving organization such as a high school or an after-school program. The volunteer-tutors work one-on-one with the adult learners to teach digital literacy skills. They are typically high school age.

The adult learners are adults of any age, recruited from the community or an adult-serving organization such as a retirement home or an adult learning centre. The adult learners get to decide which digital literacy lessons they wish to learn from their volunteer-tutors.

You don’t need to have a lot of digital literacy skills to facilitate a workshop, since your youth volunteer-tutors will work directly with the adult learners. We also provide free online training for both facilitators and youth volunteer-tutors, and the lesson plans are very easy to follow.

Book your workshops at YouthTeachingAdults.ca. Here are some of the details you should have ready:

• number of learners and volunteer-tutors expected
• dates
• times
• location of the workshops

Once we’ve received your form, we’ll be in touch to confirm your workshop and help you with any coordination, such as recruiting a partner organization.

You can book your workshops with tentative dates if you plan to run your workshops without a partner organization. If you’ll be partnering with another organization to provide either learners or volunteer-tutors, please confirm your workshop dates and times before booking to allow for the most efficient coordination process.

We recommend booking 3-4 workshops to start, and you can always book more later. Remember that youth volunteer-tutors might have limited availability during school hours.

At least 3 weeks before your first scheduled workshop if you already have access to both the adult learners and youth volunteer-tutors. At least 6-8 weeks before your first scheduled workshop if you are requesting help finding a partner organization.

No. You can run YTA with a big or small group of learners. 

As many times as you’d like! There is no cap.

ABC provides free online training for youth volunteer-tutors. This includes short readings and activities that build tutoring skills, such as how to communicate and how to work with adult learners. Youth should complete the activities before being paired with adults. Youth can do these activities on their own at home, or at your location before the workshop. Online training takes roughly one hour to complete.

Yes, absolutely! Any time you plan to use our content, either in whole or in part, that is considered a workshop and we ask that you please take a few minutes to book your workshop online.

We recommend scheduling 60-90 minutes per workshop, but the duration of each workshop can vary depending on the needs of your adult learners.

No problem! You can have one youth volunteer-tutor teach two adult learners who want to learn the same thing. Your youth volunteer-tutors can turn this arrangement into a learning activity if they teach one adult learner the lesson and then get the learner to teach the lesson to another adult.

No problem! You can have two youth volunteer-tutors work with one learner. They can use the teach-back method described above: if one tutor teaches the adult the lesson, then the adult teaches the lesson back to the other tutor.

Yes, we have participation certificates available for tutors, learners and facilitators. You can download certificates directly through the online facilitator training, which you can access once you’ve booked your workshops.

Yes. Youth volunteer-tutors can use their participation certificates as proof of their volunteer hours.