Literacy:
Spanning the U.S.
Literacy Project
celebrates 25 years
Vail Daily: 8.18.2015 by Cortni O’Brien
This summer, The Literacy Project of Eagle County is
celebrating a major milestone. The volunteer-based literacy program has been
improving lives in Eagle County through education since 1990, and the impact
they have made on the Eagle Valley community in 25 years is profound.
When asked to recall a
favorite student, Executive Director Colleen Gray diplomatically declares she
cannot name just one. But she does have a favorite student quote. Former
literacy student Earl Mills once told Gray, “If someone offered me $1,000,000
to go back to the way I was before I could read, I would turn them down.”
This statement from
Mills serves as a constant reminder to Gray. In the nonprofit world, in which
every penny counts, it is important to remember that the gift of literacy is
priceless. The Literacy Project of Eagle County seeks to empower Eagle Valley
community members of all ages by offering free assistance in acquiring the
literacy and English skills they need to function more effectively in their
daily lives. For the program’s 200 adult students, learning English means
gaining the ability to get better jobs, get medical help when children are
sick, manage their daily lives and become more engaged in the community.
“Literacy is perhaps
the most powerful weapon we have against poverty, unemployment, poor health and
inadequate housing,” Gray said. “Year after year, our students prove that a
person’s ability to rise above each of those barriers is directly related to
their ability to speak well and read well.”
READ MORE !
Library aims to increase literacy level
Journal Times: 8.19.2015 by Cory
Claxon
The Carter
County Public Library hopes a new program will help local
residents increase their literacy skills.
The program is called “It Was a Book First” and
seeks to improve literacy levels by letting those persons who check out movies
know if that movie was based on a book.
According the projects description, nearly 65
percent of all movies were first written as books.
The library hopes that comparing and
contrasting books and movies will spark deeper discussions on the stories
portrayed in them. READ MORE !
Literacy Connections
Celebrates 40 Years
Hudson Valley News Network: 8.19.2015 by Kathy
Welsh
For the past 40 years, Literacy Connections has been dedicated to
developing and offering programs and services to support a literate society by
recruiting and training volunteers to provide no-cost student-centered tutoring
primarily for adults and services for children and families that promote
independence and enrichment through literacy.
Through small group
classes and one-to-one tutoring, Literacy Connections provides basic literacy
instruction, including English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESL), and
assists adults to achieve their learning goals, which include everything from
helping their children in school, to qualifying for a better job, to continuing
on to achieve high school equivalency and even college.
Philly's adult literacy
problem
Philly.com: 8.24.2015 by Kristen A Graham,
Inquirer
Public schools are a
perpetual worry for Philadelphia, and scant attention is often paid to another
weighty educational problem: adults who struggle to read.
But nearly half of all
adults in the city - more than half a million men and women - lack the basic
skills necessary to qualify for postsecondary training or hold jobs that permit
them to support a family. Many function below eighth-grade levels.
The Mayor's
Commission on Literacy is making inroads. Its work is
attracting national attention: praise from the U.S. Department of Education,
and designation as a model site from Digital Promise, a nonprofit established
by act of Congress in 2008 to use technology to improve education for all Americans.
In 2011, Mayor Nutter
revamped the commission, decrying the city's "serious literacy
crisis." Three years later, the commission became the nation's first
provider to offer free, online, interactive courses for men and women with low
literacy and math skills.
And since the launch of
myPLACE - Philadelphia Literacy and Adult
Career Education, a citywide system to advance adults' skills - nearly 1,500
Philadelphians have completed classes in basic education, GED preparation, or
English as a Second Language, and gotten help planning their educational and
career paths.
Marcella Matthews, 54,
is one of them. The South Philadelphia resident had always worked - as a
nurse's aide, an administrative assistant. But with her daughter approaching
college graduation, Matthews wanted more for herself. READ MORE !
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