Literacy: Spanning the U.S.
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Titusville
agency seeks to get families ‘on the same page’
Titusville Herald: 11.22.2016 by Joshua Sterling
As part of its mission to break a
cycle of illiteracy, a local agency, less than two years after its inception,
is supporting literacy skills from adults and parents all the way down to
children yet to be born, so to speak.
In 2015, the Titusville Regional Literacy Council wrote
and received an Early Childhood Education Community and Innovation Zone grant,
a federal resource that is part of the state’s “Race to the Top” funding
program.
The grant has allowed the agency to
hire two new staff members — an early childhood family literacy coordinator and
an assistant — whose specialty is preparing expectant parents for the
educational needs of their child. READ MORE @
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Feast for Literacy benefits adult reading classes in St. Lucie
County
TC Palm: 11.30.2016 by Jennifer Trefelner
Did you know 23.8 percent of the adult population in St.
Lucie County functions at or below level one literacy, according to the
National Center for Educational Statistics?
Many people take reading for granted, but there is something we
can do to help those who do not have this skill.
The organization Learn to Read
of St. Lucie County, Inc. was established in 1981 when
the founder, Dorothy Brennan, learned that a mother had overdosed her child
with a medicine because she could not read the instructions on the
bottle. Since 1981, Learn to Read has offered free, confidential,
one-on-one literacy and English as a second language instruction to adults
needing literacy assistance.
The office is run by full-time executive director LuzMa
Camacho, who benefited from the literacy program herself. Camacho and her
team of volunteers along with the board of directors, help promote literacy in
our area though a myriad of activities. READ MORE @
Adult literacy program helping bridge educational gaps
Pueblo Chieftain: 11.30.2016 by Regan Foster
If you are comprehending this story, congratulations: You are in
the approximately 91 percent of U.S. adults who can read at higher than a
third-grade level. That may seem inconsequential until you consider that an organization
called ProLiteracy, based out of Syracuse, N.Y., estimated that 30 million
American adults can’t.
According to that group’s statistics, 8.1 million adults —
about twice the annual birth rate in the U.S. — dropped out of school before
eighth grade. But it also estimates that increasing the adult literacy rate by
just 1 percent would be a $2.31 billion boon to the national economy.
In addition, adults with low health literacy go to the
emergency room more often, are less likely to get flu shots and more likely to
delay or forget vital health screenings than their more-literate counterparts.
And American employers spend in excess of $125.9 billion each year on remedial
reading, writing and mathematics training, according to ProLiteracy.
Such statistics are on always on Jackie Swanson’s mind. As the
adult literacy coordinator for the Pueblo City-County Library District, she’s responsible for overseeing the educational enrichment of
about 70 area adults and more than 40 volunteer tutors who have taken the leap
of faith and joined her program.
“Education is freedom,” Swanson, a veteran educator with more than
four decades of experience, said. “From crime to bettering the community, it
scan solve a lot of problems.” READ MORE @
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