Staff from iAdult in Buncrana attended a Literacy Awareness Training session. Adele McElhinney, Donegal's Regional Literacy Coordinator, delivered the training. 

She showed them tools they can use to help them be more literacy friendly. 

If you would like to arrange this free training, contact Adele on 0860849284 or adelemcelhinney@dletb.ie.

Donegal ETB's Adult Literacy Service in Inishowen ran a taster class on 'Managing my Home'. The session was for adult carers. Claire McNicholl is the Adult Literacy Organiser in Inishowen. She organised this with Inishowen Development Partnership (IDP) for their 'Care of the Carers' programme. 

Staff from Inishowen Development Partnership took part in a workshop on Plain Language. Those who attended had a chance to design posters using Plain Language. Thanks to everyone who attended. 

If you would like to join the Family Literacy Community of Practice, please fill in this form. It is open to everyone who works with families or parents. The next online meeting is on supporting practitioners to empower parents to protect children online. It is on Wednesday 4 March at 1.15pm for an hour. 

It was great to have local community organisations attend Literacy Awareness Training in Creeslough. Thanks to everyone for coming along. 

The Adult Literacy Service team spent a day together to refocus and plan for 2026. It was a great day discussing strategies on reaching the furthest behind first.

Thanks to Deirdre McColgan for facilitating this session at Donegal ETB's head offices in Ard O'Donnell. We are excited to build networks and make new connections in 2026.

In the photo from left - right is Adele McElhinney, Trisha Gillespie, Teresa Kealy, Aidan McCloskey, Mairead Somerville, Deirdre McColgan, Georgina Thompson and Emilia Niewulska. Missing from the photo is Claire McNicholl.

This Collaboration and Innovation funded project finished in December 2025. There were two strands to this project. The first one took place in the spring. A group of learners met at the Siúlóid Loch an Inbhir each week. The Siúlóid is a 1km loop gravel walk around Inbhir lake. They learned about local flowers and fauna, as Gaelige. They also learned some local history and folklore of the surrounding area. In the autumn, a group met weekly to try out apps on their phones. These were apps that they could use while on the walk. The group wrote a list of apps that they recommend to use while on the walk. They included a birdsong identifier, a step counter, a plant identifier and the local Gaoth Dobhair app. All of the apps they recommend are on a sign at the car park, which they revealed on the 12 December. Well done to everyone involved. 

There was a wonderful celebration of learning that took place in Donegal Family Resource Centre. The project was a Collaboration and Innovation (Adult Literacy for Life) funded project. Donegal Family Resource Centre and the Further Education and Training Centre in Donegal town, worked together to deliver the project called 'Happy Quilting'. 

Participants learned crochet skills, as well as building their writing skills. They created a beautiful patchwork quilt. Each participant created something to go on their patch that was important to them. They also wrote a personal story to go with it. You can read what they wrote in the document beside this. 

Participants also learned the basics of Canva and designed frames. They wrote a story on 'the power of their name' to go along with this. Participants also spent a morning creating a copper craft frame. Well done to everyone involved!

Learners at the iAdult Day Service in Buncrana had a spooktacular morning in October! They designed Halloween posters during an IT class. Inishowen Development Partnership's (IDP) IT trainer, Denis, delivered this course.

Over the past few weeks, they’ve been taking part in digital skills training. They are now experts in using the basics of poster design in Microsoft Word. The creativity and progress on display was fantastic. Well done to everyone involved!

Donegal County Council (Local Authority Integration Team - LAIT) and Donegal ETB's Learning for Living Programme came together to deliver 'Manage My Home'. This is a Collaboration and Innovation funded project that brought speakers of other languages together to learn about managing finances within their homes. 

The course was created by Donegal ETB's Adult Literacy Service, with support from the LAIT. It is being delivered in five different locations across Donegal. Participants say it is helping them greatly to better understand how managing a home and finances work. They are learning great tips to help save money while being efficient in their homes. Each group will hear from guest speakers and learn about support services that exist. 

Pictured are students from the Ballyshannon and Dunfanaghy groups.

This Collaboration and Innovation funded project brought parents and people from within the local community together for a short cooking course. 

The project was a collaboration between Pobail Le Cheile and Pobalscoil Chloich Cheannfhaola Falcarragh. They developed liteary, language and numeracy skills each week by reading recipes, measuring ingredients and chatting with each other. 

This course was innovative in the way in which they captured their learning experiences. A photographer pictured students following each step of every recipe and created a recipe book with step-by-step instructions and photographs. This was a great way to build English language skills and vocabulary. 

The projects also supported social inclusion and building community by bringing people together from various backgrounds. Participants got to learn how to cook dishes from all the countries represented in the class. Well done to everyone involved. 

Stories We Share is a family literacy project that Donegal Local Development Company (DLDC) and Donegal County Library Service are collaborating on. 

Each family that attends will receive a pack of books to help encourage reading at home. The pack will include prompt cards with questions relating to each book. There will also be information about Family Learning in the pack too. 

All of the books that were chosen celebrate diversity, inclusion and what we share with each other. The books would be suitable for those up to age seven or eight.

A massive thank you to the outgoing Chair of Donegal's Regional Adult Literacy Coalition, Ashlean McGeehan. Ashlean is the Home School Community Liaison Coordinator in Finn Valley College. She is a true advocate for literacy and community. Thank you for your commitment to the role of Chair since its formation in 2023.

We welcome Joe Kelly from Donegal County Library Service as our incoming Chair. 

Pictured is Ashlean and Adele McElhinney (Regional Literacy Coordinator with Donegal ETB).

This is a Collaboration and Innovations funded project happening in Carndonagh. Barrick Hill Community Gardens and Colgan Hall have come together to build literacy and numeracy skills through gardening with a group of adults. The photos show students measuring depth and spacing when planting seeds as well as labelling what they've planted. We look forward to their coffee morning at the end of August to see how everything grows.  

North Connaught and Ulster Citizens Information Services celebrated 30 years by hosting the Supreme Court Justices in the Radisson Hotel in Letterkenny on the 28 April. Community and voluntary groups came together to speak about their work and share their knowledge with three Chief Justices. Thanks to CIS for organising a great event. Pictured are some members of Donegal's Regional Adult Literacy Coalition and Literacy Champions from CIS at the event. 

The staff from Inishowen Development Partnership attended a Literacy Awareness Training session with Adele McElhinney. It's great to see organisations exploring how they can become more literacy friendly with their users. Well done everyone. 

Donegal Local Development Company and three Men's Sheds launched number trails in 3 different locations: 

1. Ballykeeran Trail in Kilmacrennan, 

2. Falcarragh Park Run and 

3. Rossylongan in Donegal Town. 

This was a Collaboration and Innovation 2024 funded project. It is a great example of how collaboration can be successful. Each shed created leaves with ladybirds on them and wood burned dots on for the numbers. People walking these trails can follow the numbers and see the number written as well. The 3 sheds attended a workshop to further their skills. They also learned from each other and made connections along the way.

The Customer Care course in Donegal Town, with students from The Bluestack Foundation, enjoyed getting their certificates of achievements when they finished their course on Customer Service. Well done to everyone! Thanks to Adult Literacy for Life for funding this short course. Thanks also to Trisha Gillespie, Adult Literacy Organiser in South Donegal and Elaine O'Sullivan, Tutor for organising their wonderful celebration.

Groups of adult learners attended a Donegal ETB Further Education and Training (FET) course on Customer Service.

They learned about meeting and greeting customers and the importance of listening. One part of this course involved having a personal customer experience. Students were given a voucher to buy something in a shop. Everyone used their numeracy skills and whiteboards to keep track of their spending as they went around the shop. Afterwards, they evaluated their experience and interactions with staff. A great practical learning experience for everyone. Thank you to the shops who facilitated their visits! Also thanks to Adult Literacy for Life for providing the funding for this course. 

Learners from the Bluestack Centre in Drimarone, outside Donegal Town, Letterkenny and Stranorlar enjoyed a six week course on staying healthy. They learned about using QR codes to respond to health appointments, downloading and using apps to support healthy living and how to use a step counter to make sure you are getting your steps every day. They learned about healthy eating and spent a class making their own healthy food, reading recipes and following instructions. 

Eight Digital Health Hubs are happening across the county. Here are some pictures from the events in Milford and Central (Letterkenny) Library. Those who attended learned about the vast number of health resources available at your local library, how to know if a website is safe, some trustworthy sources of health information and more. It was great to see so many people sign up to join the library too! See below article for times of the remaining hubs happening.  

This is a Collaboration and Innovation funded project where three sheds, Kilmacrennan, Falcarragh and Donegal Town, are making number focused structures. They are ladybird leaves counting from 1-10 and will be erected in three walking trails; Rossylongan outside Donegal town, the Coillte trail in Kilmacrennan and The Park Run in Falcarragh. 

To celebrate International Literacy Day on the 8th of September, Donegal's Regional Adult Literacy Coalition launched their 2024 Action Plan. It will see the fifteen member organisations working together to reduce the number of adults across Donegal with unmet literacy skills.

The focus of the Action Plan is on collaboration between member organisations who know that literacy matters and that literacy can change lives. All the organisations have committed to working together to make a real difference to those most in need of literacy support, developing health and financial literacy support, reducing stigma while raising awareness, promoting Plain English and encouraging innovative approaches.

The Action Plan can be read here.

Seven learners from Donegal ETB's Learning for Living Programme, came together to learn how best to share their stories with others. The training took place in the Mount Errigal Hotel, Letterkenny on the 27th May. It was a wonderful way to celebrate learning and know how to encourage others to do the same. Thank you to everyone who attended and to the Adult Literacy for Life (ALL) National Programme Office (NPO) for supporting this training. 

Spring Into Storytime is delivered online and in all libraries across the country in the month of April, with story times in the library for preschool and primary school aged children.

Check out this poster to find a family story time near you. Stories are a great way to encourage reading and family learning at home. 

Throughout February and especially on Ireland Reads Day, Saturday February 24th, Ireland Reads is calling on people across Ireland to get lost in a good book. It doesn’t matter what you read, where you read or how well you read, as long as you read. There will be lots of events happening in local library branches across the county. Keep an eye on the Donegal Library website for information about events happening. You can also learn more about Ireland Reads here.