Literacy:
Spanning the U.S.
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Q&A: Jeff Burkhart
works to boost literacy in Dane County
Capital Times: 1.10.2016 by Ogechi Emechebe
Imagine not being able to read a letter from your child’s teacher, fill
out a job application, or follow instructions on a prescription medicine
bottle.
For one in seven adults in Dane County, these essential skills are a
daily struggle because of low literacy. At the Literacy Network of
Dane County, tutors are dedicated to helping adults improve
their reading, writing and comprehension skills. All of the programs are free.
Jeff Burkhart, executive director of the Literacy Network, has led the
organization for seven years. He sat down with the Cap Times to discuss what
the group is doing to help adults learn the skills needed to live a more
enriching life.
What are some of your duties as the executive director?
I provide the direction for the organization. So I build partnerships
with other community organizations and businesses, make sure our programs are
running well and looking for strategic alignments to meet the needs of adults
and families throughout our community. I’m happy to say our programs are in
great shape and things are going super well because we have great staff.
What sparked your passion to help those in Dane County become more
efficient in reading and writing?
Right when I graduated college, I volunteered at a literacy organization
and I just found that it made such a huge impact in the life of my learner. I
had a student named DeJuan and he had three kids and two jobs. He struggled to
find to find the time to meet, but I could see it was really making a big
difference for him in his life. And it was also making a difference for his
kids.
Can you describe some of the struggles you’ve seen among the
students?
One of the first struggles we’ve seen before you even talk about
literacy is people’s lives are sometimes really unstable. They may struggle with
homelessness, joblessness or substance abuse. All those things are related to
literacy but you don’t necessarily see the direct correlation between the two
until you dig down into it. So an individual who in their grade schools may not
have been assessed for a learning disability but just passed on through, that’s
the typical profile for an adult basic education learner with us.
Some folks are reading at a second or third grade level and they really
struggle and feel incredibly discouraged. But they come to us at a point in
their lives where they’re ready to try it again and we take that very
seriously. Progress is slow, but we’re making progress and you see the
confidence increase dramatically with our learners. We meet people who have had
ongoing literacy issues but once they come to us for help, some go on to get
the first job they’ve had in 20 years. READ MORE @
"Literacy Changes
Lives"
New Jersey Herald: 1.11.2016
A young man struggles at his job because of his poor reading and writing
skills. How can he ever move up within the company if he can't understand the
manuals and fill out reports for his boss? A couple moves into Sussex County
with their two small children. The father is lucky to find low-paying work
right away, but no one in the family understands much English. They are eager
to become citizens of the United States, but must learn more of the language
first.
Where can these people go for help? Sussex County Programs
of Literacy New Jersey is just the place. This non-profit
organization (formerly Literacy Volunteers of Sussex County) provides
one-on-one, student-oriented tutoring to adults in need of English (reading,
writing and comprehension) and math skills. Students can be either basic
literacy or English as a Second Language individuals. All tutoring is free and
confidential. Small group instruction is also offered as conversation groups,
with topics such as health or financial themes.
Literacy New Jersey -- Sussex County Programs recruits and trains
adults who wish to become volunteers.
"These volunteers are the backbone of our organization. They spend
approximately two hours each week with a student and then additional time to
plan each lesson." said Community Board President Carol Wilson. "Because
each student is unique, each lesson is unique, structured to the individual
student's goals, regardless of their ability. The satisfaction of helping an
adult and seeing positive results is a great feeling and a reward for both
participants." READ MORE @
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@TulareCountyLib |
Retired firefighter tutoring adults
Visalia Times Delta: 1.25.2016 by Juan Villa
Julia Honer has always tried to encourage people to read, not only to
actually work on their reading skills but to enlighten themselves.
The Visalia-resident and retired firefighter is a believer that when
you read to children it sets a tone for the rest of their lives.
But not all children have an elementary school teacher like Honer did.
A teacher who would constantly read to her class after lunch. That, Honer said,
had a significant impact on her reading and life.
“It really has stayed with me how important
that was,” she said. “…I don’t work with children here, but I was really
surprised by the adult literacy challenge we have here in the county and the
country. I was surprised it needed the help it does.”
Honer is doing her part to help with the
problem.
The 58-year-old is one of about 80
volunteer tutors with Read to Succeed, an adult literacy center
through the Tulare County Library. The program provides one-on-one tutoring for
citizenship, drivers licensing, resume writing, online job searching,
specialized studies and the General Educational Development Test (GED).
In about three years, Honer has helped
about a dozen learners. READ MORE @
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@jaxlibrary |
Library
offering new program to help adults get their diploma
Jacksonville Daily Record: 1.14.2016 by Max Marbut
It’s for
those who fell behind.
Duval
County Public Schools in the 2014-15 school year set a record for graduation
rate with 76.6 percent of seniors earning high school diplomas.
That
means 6,481 students successfully completed their secondary school education.
It also
means 23.4 percent of students — 1,979 — did not earn a diploma last year.
Over the
past four school years, 8,874 students have finished the public school program
without enough credits to earn a diploma.
Having
fewer high school and college graduates is a factor that negatively affects the
community’s ability to attract new businesses.
Quality
of the workforce is always considered when companies look at Jacksonville for
expansion, said Tina Wirth, vice president of workforce development at the JAX
Chamber.
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The
newest program available for adults who want a diploma is available at the Jacksonville Public Library. READ MORE @
County
literacy program looks to recruit more volunteer tutors
Turlock Journal: 1.15.2016 by Alysson Aredas
An
18-year-old man who reads at a third grade level that wants to become a lawyer,
a 56-year-old woman who wants to improve her reading and writing skills to
study phlebotomy, a 30-year-old man who speaks fluent French, but wants to
enhance his understanding of the English language to go to college—these are
just three students waiting to be tutored in LearningQuest’s Adult Literacy program.
Executive
Director Karen Williams aims to help these three students, as well as the
nearly 40 additional adult learners currently on the program’s waiting list,
but she said she cannot do it without the help of more volunteer tutors
throughout Stanislaus County.
“It
seems trite to say, ‘We couldn’t do it without you,’ but in the case of the
volunteer tutors in our program it is completely true,” said Williams. “It
would be wonderful to be able to find a tutor for each one of these students.”
Williams
said that volunteers will be trained to work one-on-one with adult students who
would like to learn how to read and write in a way that will allow them to
achieve their individual goals. Students and tutors will meet in a public
setting for three hours a week for a span of at least six months. Training, materials and ongoing support will
be provided.
“You
don’t have to be a teacher to be able to do this,” said Williams. “You just
need to be able to read at a high school level so you can help your student get
to that level too.” READ MORE @
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