The intervention group will receive the functional literacy program in which, in small groups, participants learn literacy skills in the context of daily life activities such as shopping, meal preparation, and transportation use.

The control group will not receive intervention but the Usual Care Management Services.

The intervention will be provided twice weekly in 2-hour sessions, over 8 weeks. The 16 intervention sessions will provide the opportunity for participants to learn functional literacy skills to (1) manage an apartment, (2) access community resources, (3) manage finances, (4) access free recreational activities. All sessions will address literacy skills needed to complete basic daily life activities in the home and community environments. Literacy skills will first be learned and practiced within the supported shelter, and then extended to the community.

The Canadian Occupational Performance Measure (COPM) is a 5-item, 10-point rating scale (1=most important, 10=least important) designed to be completed conjointly by a therapist and participant, and requires approximately 30 minutes to administer. The scale allows participants to identify and prioritize the most important problems impacting daily function and can be used with clients of all ages and diagnoses. Participants are asked to identify the five most critical problems impeding functional performance in the areas of self-care, productivity, and leisure. After the identification of five problems, participants are asked to rate both performance and satisfaction levels of the identified activities on a 10-point scale (1=not satisfied; 10=extremely satisfied). An open-ended narrative section is provided to allow therapists to record participant comments. The COPM is intended to be used pre- and post-intervention.

The IRO-Adult identifies reading materials from a list of 14 categories (e.g., financial records, federal/state aid documents, food and nutrition labels) that participants access as part of daily occupations. Two sections include Reading Categories (having 14 items) and Dimensions of Reading Participation (consisting of 5 dimensions with two open-ended questions and three 5-point Likert scale items; scores of 10+ = higher reading proficiency). For each client-identified reading category, participants are asked a series of questions about the 5 dimensions of reading participation: (1) reading material type; (2) frequency of access; (3) effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction; (4) importance of reading material in daily life; and (5) strategies and supports needed to access). The IRO-Adult descriptively assesses participants' relative mastery (effectiveness, efficiency, satisfaction) in functional literacy in relation to occupational participation.