Literacy:
Spanning the U.S.
YWCA of Westmoreland County adds literacy center
Trib Live: 1.15.2016 by Jacob Tierney
The YWCA of Westmoreland County now has a
refurbished area where you can go to brush up on your English or improve reading
skills crucial to daily life.
A former ballroom in the Huff Mansion on North Main Street in
Greensburg's Academy Hill Historic District has been renovated into a literacy
center that opened about a month ago.
“We did it on a shoestring,” Maggie O'Leary, literacy program director,
said of the renovation work that took about a year to complete.
Workers added a wall to provide privacy, replaced the ceiling,
refurbished the floor and built cubicles that will serve as study spaces for
tutors to work with their pupils.
Thanks to volunteer efforts and donated equipment, the project cost
less than $1,000, according to YWCA Executive Director Kathy Raunikar.
The new center ties in to the YWCA's goal to expand its literacy
efforts, Raunikar said.
“Having a space where they can all come is certainly going to help in
growing the program,” she said.
The literacy program serves two main groups: adults who lack reading
skills and people whose second language is English.
“There's a large number of the population that don't read above an
eighth-grade level, sometimes not above a fifth-grade level,” O'Leary
said. READ MORE @
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Touching video highlights Tennessee man’s journey to literacy
WKRN: 1.15.2016
A touching video spotlights a Nashville man who has overcome a lifelong
secret.
Joseph Buford learned to read later in life through programs supported
by the Dollar General Literacy Foundation.
Now, Kleenex is documenting his success story.
Buford said he spent most of his life hiding that he couldn’t read.
“It was terrifying, it was actually terrifying. It’s almost like the
world walked off and left you behind; that’s the way I felt,” Buford explained.
He told News 2 he
led a double life.
“My children would bring me something and want me to read it to them
and I would always have an excuse,” he recalled, adding that his wife didn’t
even know.
“I said if you want to divorce me, leave me I’ll understand,” he said.
Buford’s wife stuck beside him he found help at the Nashville Adult Literacy Council.
“There is over 30 million adults in the United States who read at one
of the lowest levels of literacy,” Denine Torr with the Dollar General Literacy
Foundation told News 2.
According to Torr, for more than a decade the Dollar General Literacy Foundation has been providing funding for the
Nashville Adult Literacy Council to help those like Buford. VIDEO
Learning
to Read at Age 41
NYPL Blog: 1.14.2016 by Elaine Sohn,
Volunteer, Aguilar Library, Adult Learning Center
It was
June, 2006. The place was the Adult
Learning Center at the Aguilar branch of the NYPL on 110th
Street near Lexington, where more than a hundred students and twenty-five
volunteers met regularly to study together. Around a table, small groups of
students met with one or two volunteers for four hours each week, and built their
reading and writing skills together in a relaxed, informal setting.
Awa* was
41 years old. She had five children aged 4-13, and she was born in Gambia, in
West Africa. She walked into the Aguilar Adult Learning Center and said to the
Site Advisor, “Can you help me? I want to learn to read.”
Awa’s
spoken English was poor, but her desire to learn was clear. She had had only a
few months of education in Gambia before coming to the US to start a new life
here. Catholic Charities had helped her with housing, food, and schools for her
kids, and then sent her to the library so she could learn how to read. They
knew that her low literacy put a ceiling on her prospects to survive in NYC.
At
Aguilar then, learning to read using computer software was the first step for
new students, so after learning how to use a mouse, Awa worked independently
listening to sounds, clicking on pictures, and repeating words. She was
frustrated. Often she couldn’t understand what the computer was asking her to
do. She didn’t even know the alphabet. Holding a pencil was difficult, writing
with it was even harder. She was “in a hurry,” and she wasn’t happy trying to
do what she couldn’t do. She was ready to give up. READ MORE @
Financial
crisis for Joplin NALA equals Literacy crisis
Joplin Globe: 1.17.2016 by Marj Boudreaux,
Director of Joplin NALA Read
You’re
stunned. You have only one thought — to get out of the machine shop as fast as
you can. Your boss just handed you a manual and said you must pass a test on it
this Friday. What will you do? In the past, your friend, Joe, has always read
work-related materials to you because reading is difficult for you. But there’s
no way he can read the whole manual to you by Friday. What can you do?
Wait a
minute. The other day, a friend told you about this school that teaches reading
to adults — probably wouldn’t help you pass the test on Friday, but maybe you
should check it out. Maybe if you tell your boss you’re working on your
reading, he’ll cut you some slack about the test. Well, it’s a good place to
start. What’s it called? Oh, yeah, Joplin NALA Read,
and it’s at Second and Main streets.
That
scenario of needing to read for a job is just one of many reasons people come
to see us. It’s a crucial reason, however, for area businesses that need to
hire competent workers. Even entry level workers, no matter what the job,
benefit their employer when they read well. It’s a sad but true fact that
having a high school diploma does not guarantee a high reading level. Yet
reading skills are essential to safety, performance and progress at every job
site.
They are
essential in other situations, also. Parents want to read to their children and
help them with homework. Potential military recruits must pass the Armed
Services Vocational Aptitude Battery. Others want to register to vote, get a
driver’s license, increase involvement in the community, pass the high school
equivalency exam (formerly GED) or improve their health and wellness — all of
these are goals students have when they come to Joplin NALA Read.
-The
question is where within Joplin and the surrounding communities can adults go
to improve their reading, math or English skills? The answer: only at Joplin
NALA Read. READ MORE @
Project Light teaches English to
Manatee County residents
Bradenton Herald: 1.18.2016 by Claire
Aronson
When Victor Diaz moved to the
United States from Colombia with his wife 14 years ago, neither of them could
speak English, but they were determined to learn.
Through classes at Project Light, a nonprofit English
language school, the 89-year-old can now speak English. While in his second
level of English classes at the literacy center, 1104 14th St. W., Bradenton,
Diaz comes every day just to practice his conversational English because, he
says, it's the best way to learn.
"I don't have people to
practice with at home," Diaz said. "I come here every day to learn. I
like coming here. It's an opportunity for me to practice. I need to practice
every day."
On Monday, Diaz, along with
about 15 other people, took part in the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service,
organizing new libraries and materials at Project Light and labeling books for
check out. Project Light received a $2,000 Martin Luther King Jr. Day of
Service grant from Occupy Bradenton, which was a recipient of a grant from
State College of Florida Manatee-Sarasota.
With the grant, Project Light was
able to set up two libraries -- one for teacher resources and the second for
reading and practice materials for the students. There are also books to
prepare for GED and citizenship exams.
Now students such as Diaz will
be able to take books home to continue practicing outside of class.
"It will also encourage
them to read outside of the classroom and read with children," said Chris
MacCormack, Project Light program director. "We are going to encourage
them to sit down and read with children. I really hope they are going to use
these libraries." READ MORE @
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