Literacy – Spanning the US :: Savannah GA :: Atlanta GA :: Tacoma WA

Literacy: Spanning the U.S.     

@RoyceLearning

Lifting Adults Out Of Illiteracy

Savannah-based program helps hundreds shed the shame of illiteracy

WSAV: 9.19.2018 by Martin Staunton

There are well over a million Georgians living with a secret that negatively impacts their lives every day. They can barely read, write, and have less than adequate math skills.

There is a program in Savannah to help tackle those issues.

The Adult and Community Education in the Royce Learning Center is helping to lower illiteracy  numbers locally. That label means they are reading, writing, and have math skills that are on a 2nd-grade level or below.

The Royce Learning Center is celebrating September -- National Literacy Month. The center highlighting their efforts to fight illiteracy in Chatham County, where they've helped thousands over the years.

Each student gets one-on-one instruction after they take the first and most difficult step: asking for help.

Khani Morgan is the Adult Literacy Coordinator. She says a lot of people who seek help have a lot in common.

"Many people like to camouflage and they don't want anyone to know it. They're hiding themselves. They say 'I've been ashamed. I've been afraid to even let someone know,'" Morgan said.

Adult students, like 60-year-old Deborah Jackson and 18-year-old Isaiah Suarez, both from Savannah, talk about their decision to do something about their illiteracy.  WATCH 02:37

@LiteracyGeorgia

Improved Literacy At Heart Of Ga.’s Workforce Solution

MyAJC: 9.21.2018 Opinion By Wendell Dallas

Imagine a state where all Georgians are self-sufficient and contributing to the state’s economy. Imagine Georgia as the nation’s leader for high school and college completion and workforce preparation. Imagine Georgia’s economy as one that will always grow because we have a literate and educated workforce enabling us to recruit and expand businesses statewide.

This is not a dream. It’s within our collective abilities to address workforce preparation and continued economic growth. But we must address the fact that we have a multigenerational cycle of low literacy and we must break this cycle to continue to prosper and grow as a state.

Did you know that one of every six Georgian adults is currently low literate? Sixty-three percent of our third graders are not reading proficiently by the end of their third-grade year. This gap creates tremendous consequences for these children in the future. They are more likely to drop out of high school, have poor health and live in poverty later in life.

Adults with low literacy cost Georgia approximately $1.3 billion annually in social services and lost revenue. This year alone in Georgia, 88 percent of all jobs require a high school diploma or post-secondary credentials and more than 820,000 Georgians do not qualify for these jobs. (Deloitte Study: The State of Literacy in Ga.: Action Needed for Georgia’s Thriving Workforce and Economy).  READ MORE >>

Tacoma Literacy

Literacy Council Celebrates 50th Anniversary

Tacoma Weekly: 9.21.2018 by Ruth Anderson

You’ve seen them in your library – two adults sitting side by side by side, workbooks piled in front of them, intent on their study. What are these folks up to in that carrel or study room? Very likely you’ve espied a volunteer teaching someone to read, write, and/or speak English under the auspices of the Tacoma Area Literacy Council (TALC).

TALC owes its existence to Dr. Frank Laubach (1884-1970), international literacy proponent, who pioneered the idea of having “each one teach one.” In 1967, Dr. Laubach, headquartered in Syracuse, NY, spoke in Seattle about his literacy program, chartered in 1955. Fortunately for Pierce County, two women living in Tacoma attended the compelling presentation.

Mabel Lowd (1905-1981), a retired church secretary and social worker, and Margaret Sutherland (1894-1985), also a social worker, held the first meeting of the Tacoma Laubach Literacy organization in January 1968. That March, with assistance from the Portland Laubach Council, they held the first workshop to train tutors. Since that time, TALC volunteer tutors have taught thousands of adults to read, write and speak English.

Fifty years later, this all-volunteer organization, with 80-90 tutor-learner pairs throughout Pierce County, is observing a yearlong Literacy is Golden program.  READ MORE >>