Staff working with Tipperary people battling addiction become Literacy Champions

Eighteen people working with people battling addiction in south Tipperary and Waterford were awarded certificates for completing an adult literacy awareness training programme at a ceremony in Carrick-on-Suir on Tuesday, January 27.

The awards event in the town’s Carraig Hotel was for those who successfully completed the Adult Literacy Awareness Training for Staff Working with Individuals in Addiction and Addiction Recovery course.

One in six adults in Ireland struggle with unmet literacy needs. While this is the national average, the rates are significantly higher within specific marginalised and vulnerable groups.

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This project aimed to train staff in literacy awareness, health literacy and literacy in addiction. It looked at using plain language to make services easier to access by removing literacy barriers.

The project gave staff the opportunity to learn how to become more literacy-friendly and how to use plain language when communicating with people through forms, posting on social media, using spoken language and when designing website content, organisational signage and leaflets for their service.

The project was the first time certified Literacy Awareness Training was offered collectively to staff working within local health, education and community services.

Staff working with people in addiction and recovery in Waterford and South Tipperary Community Youth Projects, Community Drugs Initiatives and Family Support Services, as well as staff from the Clonmel Probation Service, Tipperary ETB Adult Education Services, Tipperary County Council, HSE Clonmel Substance Misuse Service and HSE Community Mental Health Service took part in the project.

Once the training was completed, all participants became the first trained Literacy Champions for their organisations. The training was designed to help staff understand how literacy can have a huge impact on people using their services and how they can use their roles to implement the goals of the national Adult Literacy for Life (ALL) Strategy in the community.

Staff who took part in the project had a choice of two groups of training, both of which were held over one day per week between last September and November. The training was carried out online and in-person using the Tipperary ETB Further Education & Training Centre in Carrick.

It was facilitated by Ester Mackey, Regional Literacy Coordinator with Tipperary ETB and by Sean Driver, Plain English Editor and Trainer with the National Adult Literacy Agency (NALA) Dublin.

The project was developed by Waterford and South Tipperary Community Youth Service staff, Karen Scully, Programme Coordinator of the Making Connections South Tipperary Local Training Initiative, funded by Tipperary ETB and Gail Sheridan, Community Drugs Worker at Suir Valley Community Based Drugs Initiative along with HSE staff including John Leahy, HSE Drug Education Officer with the Clonmel Substance Misuse Service.

The project developers formed a partnership with the HSE, Tipperary ETB and the National Adult Literacy Agency (NALA) to roll out the project, which was funded under the ALL Strategy using the SOLAS Collaboration and Innovation Fund 2025.

If you are struggling with reading, writing or using computers you can contact the National Adult Literacy Agency at (01) 412 7900 or Tipperary ETB Adult Literacy Services at (052) 612 754.

Gail Sheridan, Suir Valley Community Based Drugs Initiative; Karen Scully, Programme Coordinator Making Connections, LTI, and John Leahy, HSE Drug Education Officer at the certificates awards ceremony in the Carraig Hotel. Pictures Anne Marie Magorrian 

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