Literacy: Spanning North America
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Durham Literacy Center honors its volunteers
Durham Herald Sun: 4.27.2017 by Cliff Bellamy
After an accident and the need for medical care,
Essoetche “George” Ebia came to Durham from his native Togo in West Africa.
Ebia is now in his second semester of the Durham Literacy
Center’s advanced classes in English for Speakers of Other
Languages.
His ambition is to improve his English so he can
study agriculture at N.C. State University and someday create a non-profit
organization that will allow American farmers to share knowledge with farmers
in Togo. “College demands high level skills. ... I know I need better English,”
Ebia said during a speech at the Durham Literacy Center’s 10th annual Leaders
in Literacy breakfast. “My neighbors and friends tell me I speak better, and I
think I do. Yes?” The audience applauded to his question.
“I hope you understood me well enough to know how
much [the Durham Literacy Center] means to students like me,” Ebia said.
The annual breakfast honors students, volunteers,
businesses and community groups that support the center’s programs. They
include classes in Adult Literacy, a Youth Education Program, computer literacy
and GED preparation.
This year’s Leader in Literacy Award was given to
the volunteers “who make our organization thrive,” said Lizzie Ellis-Furlong,
executive director of the Literacy Center. “We were started by volunteers, and
we are still dependent on volunteers,” she said. The center now has more than
200 volunteers who teach in the center’s programs, Ellis-Furlong said. John
Hope Franklin, Mary Semans, RTI and SunTrust Bank are among past recipients of
the award. READ MORE @
Literacy Program Speaks Volumes
The Santa Clara: 4.27.2017 by Grant
Pustelnik
After years of struggling to read and write
confidently, local residents were given a platform to share their own written
works.
On April 23, Read Santa Clara, an adult and family
literacy program through the City of Santa Clara, hosted an emotional annual
event at the Mission City Center for Performing Arts.
The event included public readings of personal
works by adult learners, as well as award presentations to inspirational
students and their tutors.
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Each year, the adult learners have their writings
published and mass-printed in a bound book.
Among the learners is longtime Benson Memorial
Center worker Daciano Silva.
At the event, Silva read his personal work, “We
All Have the Power to Make Change,” in which he detailed the importance of
helping others and the need for self-improvement.
“We the people have the power to make a
difference,” Silva said. “We should provide more opportunities for students
with learning disabilities, like having job fairs to give them better chances
in life through more choices of good-paying jobs.”
Silva’s piece primarily referred to his own
personal experiences with self-improvement.
He discussed how his learning disability hindered
his ability to attend college or earn a high-paying job, and he thanked Read
Santa Clara for giving him the confidence to tell his story. READ MORE @
Red Deer City councillor talks the importance of
literacy
Red Deer Express: 4.29.2017
Red Deer City Councillor Dianne Wyntjes was the
guest speaker at this year’s Adult Literacy Volunteer Appreciation social
hosted by the Red
Deer Public Library’s (RDPL) Annual Appreciation Night for
Volunteers earlier this week.
According to her page on the City’s web site,
Wyntjes is a reading enthusiast, reading a lot in her spare time.
She began her speech by thanking the leadership of
the RDPL for their leadership, the staff and the volunteers for their support
for literacy and adult learning.
She said through literacy initiatives one can
empower personal growth to make healthy life choices, build life skills for
relationships, parenting and health care decisions, among others.
She said through the RDPL Adult Literacy Program
and other library initiatives, it opens the doors of reading, literacy and
opportunity in the community.
“I hope along with your encouragement that you
will recruit future literacy volunteers and learners in our community because
that’s how we spread the wisdom and knowledge,” she said.
Wyntjes was elected to City council in 2010 and
was re-elected in 2013. In that time she has gotten to know members of the
community on a regular basis, she said.
“As a councillor one becomes privileged to become
aware of secrets and struggles in our community, and it’s not uncommon as you
know that there are those who struggle with basic reading, writing and math
skills.” READ MORE @
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