Literacy: Spanning the U.S. - Chicago IL, Cadillac MI, Columbus OH, Rowan Co NC

Literacy: Spanning the U.S.

Tolton literacy center helps turn around lives
Education, GED can offer second chances
Chicago Tribune: 12.05.2013 by Robert McCoppin

At age 57, Tina Wellington is starting over.

Growing up on Chicago's West Side, Wellington only reached a fifth-grade reading level. In years past she got caught up in alcohol, drugs, prostitution and jail. Now she's trying to turn her life around, hoping to work in child development and eventually run her own restaurant, with help from the Tolton Adult & Family Literacy Center.

"I've got a second chance," she said. "It's like being a child in an adult's body. I'm excited to get to school."

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With a staff of 22 and a budget of $550,000, funded primarily through the Illinois Community College Fund, the Tolton Center provides its services free to some 800 clients a year — often to people who otherwise could not afford it. The program also is supported by Chicago Tribune Charities, a McCormick Foundation fund.

The Tolton Center — named for Augustus Tolton, one of the nation's first African-American priests — has been working since 1991 to provide literacy and basic adult education to the homeless, immigrants, and victims of domestic violence, operating out of five sites on the South and West sides.  READ MORE !

Literacy a problem for some adults, help is available

CadillacNews: 12.12.2013 by Rick Charmoli

Depending on the county, between 8 and 11 percent of residents in the area are lacking basic reading and writing skills.

That equals almost 2,000 people in Wexford County, 1,100 in Missaukee County, 1,600 in Osceola County and 1,000 in Lake County. For that reason, the Adult Literacy Council of the Cadillac area was founded. Barb Derby retired from Cadillac Area Public Schools in 2009 and went from the classroom to helping adults learn to read. In all, she spent 27 years as a special education teacher, so she knows how difficult it is to overcome a disability while growing up as well as the challenges it presents to an adult.

“It is difficult for somebody to do something about it," Derby said. "It is difficult for someone to admit they have the problem and will do something about it."

Derby said when they do, they can begin the long process of learning to read.  READ MORE !

Literacy Council sometimes needs tutors; other times, like now, it needs students

Salisbury Post: 12.01.2013 by Susan Shinn

Sometimes, Phyllis Martin needs students. Other times, she needs tutors. But she doesn’t worry, because over the years, she’s learned it all works out.

Martin is the longtime volunteer director of the Rowan County Literacy Council. She’s also president of its board of directors. Daisy Boyd, who joined the organization in September 1994, one month before Martin, is its only paid staff member.

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In 2012, 57 tutors logged 5,874 hours. If they were paid at a rate of for-profit tutoring groups, the amount of money tutors volunteered their time is equal to $154,960.

“The federal government says we’re not worth $40 an hour,” Martin notes, “but I think we’re probably worth more than $40 an hour.”

In 2012, the literacy council served 27 basic education students and 65 English as a Second Language (ESL) students, for a total of 92 students served. Of that number, 47 continued from the previous year. Unfortunately, national statistics indicate that 50 percent of students drop out within the first six months. According to literacy council statistics, 51 students left during the fiscal year, similar to national trends.  READ MORE !

Mothers in prison record books for their children

Columbus Dispatch: 12.09.2013 by JoAnne Viviano  

As Lacey Young finished reading A Charlie Brown Christmas, she told her 6-year-old son, Cayden, that the holidays mean more than packages under a tree.

“It’s about who loves you and who is always in your heart,” she said. “I love you.”

Young offered the message from the Ohio Reformatory for Women in Marysville, about 100 miles from where her son lives in Athens. This is the second Christmas she won’t bake cookies or decorate the tree with her children. It’s the second time she won’t be home to watch them open their presents.

But the Aunt Mary’s Storybook Project at the prison means that Cayden and his 4-year-old sister, Presley, will be able to revisit the days when their mother read books to them as they snuggled together on the floor or in bed.

As part of the program, Young met last Monday with members of Vineyard Columbus church, who recorded her as she read books. A copy of the recordings, and the books, will be mailed to her children, likely in time for Christmas.  READ MORE !