Sunday, April 27, 2014

Literacy - Spanning the U.S: Tulare CA, LIFE IN, Detroit MI

Literacy:  Spanning the U.S.

Today is Adult Literacy Day in Tulare County
TCL News Blog: 4.22.2014

The Tulare County Board of Supervisors designated today as Adult Literacy Day at its weekly board meeting.

County Librarian Jeff Scott, Program Manager Sue Gillison and Tulare Coordinator Kim Torrez came before the board and audience to outline the activities of the Literacy program. Ms. Gillison introduced Veronica Serrano and Mrs. Torrez presented Kalash Rana as outstanding examples of achievement in literacy.

Board Chairman Phil Cox asked the program administrators, tutors and learners to join him in front of the audience as he made the proclamation presentation. Chairman Cox noted that *What these learners, Veronica and Kalash, have told us is what we need to hear about the importance of our literacy program."

The Tulare County Library Read to Succeed literacy program offers free literacy services to any adult county resident. The tutors are all volunteers who give their services to the community. For more information, call 713-2745.  READ MORE !

TURNING A NEW PAGE: Jeffersonville adult literacy program looks to boost opportunities
Literacy Is For Everyone is a free program for illiterate adults
News&Tribune: 4.16.2014 by Elizabeth Beilman

A Jeffersonville group is helping people learn a basic skill that most take for granted every day, even at this very moment — reading.
-Don Walker and others at Faith Lutheran Church founded LIFE, or Literacy Is For Everyone, a free program for illiterate adults who are looking to get their high school equivalency degrees or just wanting to function better in society.

Walker, director of the program, said he was shocked to learn of the number of adults in Clark and surrounding counties who don’t have a high school diploma. Many of whom can’t read and haven’t had a place to learn. He said that LIFE is the first adult literacy program in Jeffersonville.

“There’s been no where to turn,” he said. “Part of the problem is the fact that these people are often underemployed or unemployed, so they don’t have a whole lot of money.”  READ MORE !

Literacy volunteers in Metro Detroit help break down language barriers
Detroit News: 4.19.2014 by Shawn D Lewis

The tutor and pupil are suburban wives and moms.

Similar, yet different.

One’s from Grosse Pointe; the other is originally from Dakar, Senegal. One is Catholic. One is Muslim. One’s parents stressed education, as did the other’s — just not for girls.

Differences fade in their embrace before they settle into a cubicle with their workbooks at the Dominican Literacy Center on Detroit’s east side. Nogaye Walker’s education ended in the fourth grade. Christine Simon, who worked in retail and always volunteered, is teaching her to read and write.

“She is a very nice lady and always tells me, ‘You can do it,’ ” said Walker, 40, of Southfield.

Simon returns the compliment.

“But you self-correct all the time,” she says. “The thought of me trying to speak your language is just too difficult to even imagine.”

Walker, who speaks French and Wolof, a language of Senegal, represents a growing number of Metro Detroiters seeking literacy skills, especially among those in English as a second language programs.

Nearly half of Michigan’s adults — 44 percent — have minimal literacy skills, no greater than those necessary to perform simple, everyday activities, according to the Michigan League for Human Services.

Those numbers are even higher in Detroit, according to Reading Works, an organization of diverse leaders from the business, education, media, civic and faith communities that is dedicated to boosting adult literacy in Metro Detroit.  READ MORE !




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