Literacy:
Spanning North America
Reach a Reader: Tutor enjoys chatting
Williams Lake Tribune: 1.26.2016 by Gaeil
Farrar
Helping adults to improve their reading skills
has become a richly rewarding experience for Val Biffert.
Seven years ago, Val took her first tutor
training course with Cariboo Chilcotin Partners for Literacy after seeing an advertisement
in The Tribune.
Since then she has tutored three new Canadian
women whose first language was not English.
“Tutoring opens new doors for me and in return
I am opening new doors for my students,” Val says. “I love learning about new
cultures and feel that I have an insider’s view of my learner’s birth country.
Watching my learner gain confidence is very rewarding. So, it is a win-win
situation.” READ MORE @
Tulare literacy program
thanks teen
Visalia Delta Times: 1.26.2016
BIG THANKS
A Tulare teenager has
done it again.
Caitlin Phelps recently
donated books and funds to the Read to Succeed Tulare Literacy Center,
thanks to the book drive she organized and created in 2013.
The donation will help
the adult literacy and Motheread
programs offered in Tulare as part of the Tulare County Library's literacy
services. READ MORE @
Literacy Project at
Jewish Community of Amherst aims to improve lives of back-to-school adults
Gazette Net: 1.29.2016 by Scott Merzbach
About 20 years ago, Bose
Teluwo decided to leave Nigeria and arrived in the United States as an
immigrant with hopes of improving the life of her family.
On Thursday morning,
standing in front of her classmates and instructors, Teluwo spoke about the
immigration views of presidential candidates Ted Cruz and John Kasich,
observing Cruz’s support for strengthening immigration laws and securing the
Mexican border, and Kasich’s retreat from earlier opinions to end birthright
citizenship for children of undocumented immigrants and allow extended guest
worker visas.
“He’s changing his
mind,” Teluwo said, of Kasich. “He doesn’t want them to stay.”
These insights into
presidential politics — and candidates’ proposed policies on immigration — were
part of a classroom study at the Literacy Project, where Teluwo, 50, is one
of about two dozen students striving to become more informed and conversant in
a variety of subjects, including current affairs. The students are preparing to
eventually take high school equivalency tests.
Teluwo, of Amherst,
works as a farmer and said she is strengthening her reading and writing by
attending the free class four times a week. She was encouraged to sign up by
her four children, two of whom graduated from the University of Massachusetts.
“Before I came here, I
dreamed about attending school,” Teluwo said. “When I came here, everything has
changed.”
Teluwo’s story is
similar to many of those who are referred to the Literacy Project. About
three-quarters of participants at the Amherst site, located inside the Jewish
Community of Amherst on Main Street, are immigrants and
refugees. READ MORE @
Literacy Volunteers
marking 30th year
Press Republican: 2.01.2016
2015 was a year of big
changes for Literacy Volunteers of Essex and Franklin Counties.
Longtime Executive
Director Maria Burke left for a new opportunity, and after an intensive search,
a new director was hired, only to depart a few months later for personal
reasons.
The Board of Directors
then unanimously voted to promote Program Director Marie Despres to the
position of executive director.
“I love that this work
changes people’s lives,” Despres said in a statement. “It feels really good to
have such a measurable, positive impact.”
THREE DECADES
The organization is
celebrating its 30th year.
In the early 1980s,
Preston Miller, a Malone native, was troubled by the low level of reading
skills in Franklin County. He was convinced that reading was a human right and
chose to help those who were unable to perform many daily tasks because of
their low literacy skills.
On April 7, 1986, he
founded Literacy Volunteers of Franklin County.
Miller remained director of the organization until his death in April 2000. READ MORE @
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Literacy changes lives for better
Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette:
1.17.2016 by April Robertson
Four years ago, Sharon Nisen was sitting at
a table during Scrabble Wars.
She was enjoying the evening -- having
played an energetic round of the board game, perused the silent auction and had
a nice dinner. But during the slideshow that explained the need for the Literacy Council of
Benton County, Nisen was shocked to learn that 45,000
adults in Northwest Arkansas don't know how to read.
"I was
astounded when I read that [that many] adults living and working in Benton
County are considered functionally illiterate," Nisen says. "That
blew my mind." New to Northwest Arkansas at the time, she thought,
"It couldn't possibly be. Not in Benton County. Not in the area where
Walmart has their world headquarters. It can't be."
She pointed out to her
husband that 45,000 was the number of people who lived in her hometown back in
Pennsylvania, quite a mass of people to be missing a skill so crucial to daily
life. Thinking she must have misunderstood, she then emailed Vicki Ronald,
executive director of the organization, hoping it was a typo. It wasn't.
Nisen couldn't fathom
that many people falling through the cracks because she grew up in a family
which prioritized knowledge over material things. Her parents were always quick
to remind her that a good education was far more valuable than a nice house or
fancy car.
Those family values
drove Nisen into business, where she spent four decades working for major
companies and led her sister into a career as a teaching doctor. Shortly before
that sister died, she encouraged Nisen to become a dedicated volunteer. READ MORE @
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