About Us

The Rural Routes program, is entering its 21st year of providing high-quality professional development support and services to adult EAL (English as an additional language) providers and programs.

Rural Routes receives funding from Advanced Education and Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada for ongoing EAL capacity development services to rural and small urban EAL providers in Alberta.

 The Rural Routes program improves access for small EAL programs, and their providers located in urban areas. We support and build capacity of EAL providers so they can offer culturally integrated English language programs and services to enhance economic and social integration for adult newcomers.  

We reach beyond the NorQuest regional stewardship, as we are a provincially and federally funded program. Our clientele includes the Community Adult Learning Programs (CALPS),  CALP partners, and non-CALPs such as immigration organizations, churches and library programs who provide front-line service that support newcomers to establish themselves in their communities throughout Alberta.   

We are committed to providing continued support to our current clients and welcome new communities, programs, and EAL providers.

Our Rural Regional Advisors and Intercultural specialists stay at the leading edge of new information, standards and resources being developed in Alberta and across the country so they can pass this information on through the services we offer. Our services align with Canadian Language Benchmarks, ATESL’s Best Practices, and Guidelines for ESL programming.