Literacy – Spanning North America: Santa Clara CA :: Evergreen CO :: Maple Ridge BC :: Corpus Christi TX :: Detroit MI

Santa Clara’s Librarians and “Inspirational Women” Share What Inspires Them

Santa Clara Weekly: 3.23.2016 - 3.29.2016 By Cynthia Cheng

Sometimes those who inspire others may find their own inspiration in the very people that they help. Just ask Karen Masada, student-tutor coordinator of Santa Clara City Library's Read Santa Clara, an adult literacy program. Masada remembers feeling touched seeing one learner work on her wedding vows and another learner write her mother's obituary during their tutoring sessions. According to Shanti Bhaskaran, literary program supervisor, 114 volunteers gave over 4,100 hours of volunteering to assist in Read Santa Clara last year. Masada and Bhaskaran, nominated by library board trustee member Betsy Megas, were two of 25 women recognized by Assemblymember Kansen Chu as Inspirational Women during a March 10 ceremony at the Berryessa Community Center in San Jose.

"I was proud to sponsor this event as an opportunity to recognize the many contributions which so many women make each day to improve our state and the 25th district," says Chu.  READ MORE @

Evergreen job seekers find help from literacy programs

Two area nonprofits focus on training that gets more clients to work

Denver Post: 3.24.2016 by Josie Klemaier

A growing literacy program in the Evergreen area is about much more than just reading.

"There's such a huge stigma surrounding literacy, and of course it's when we're talking about jobs and housing that literacy is such an issue up here," said Jennie Page, the jobs program director at Evergreen Christian Outreach, or Echo.

Echo recently formed a partnership with Mountain Reads, a local nonprofit effort started two years ago by the Evergreen Rotary to help adults in the community improve their reading and reading comprehension skills. Mountain Reads volunteers tutor their clients in reading comprehension, math skills and studying to earn their GED.

Both nonprofits were seeing that their clients' struggles finding employment were linked to computer literacy, since many applications are done online and include a literacy component.

"Most of our adult learners, they want that computer experience first because they missed that piece in their education," said Diane Lange, a Mountain Reads board member.   READ MORE @

@MRPMLiteracy

For the sake of adult learning

Maple Ridge News: 3.24.2016 by Michael Hall

Rose Puszka noticed right away when her daughter was learning to read that she struggled some remembering the words and sounds.

Her son, who was talkative, had picked up reading more quickly, but her daughter was more quiet and would require some help, some more time and strategies, such as visuals – cues to tell her what was happening in the story.

It is a story Puszka is familiar with.

Visuals are one of the strategies employed by the Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows-Katzie Community Literacy Committee, for which Puszka is the new adult literacy coordinator.

Literacy has been her passion for years.

She moved from Leicestershire, England nine years ago. Her work there centered on literacy and family learning, as well.

She was support and education coordinator with the Alzheimer’s Society of B.C. before joining the adult literacy committee in Maple Ridge.  READ MORE @

Literacy program gets boost to continue services

Corpus Christi Caller Times: 3.26.2016 by Beatriz Alvarado

Maria Ines Moran didn't attend school until she was 32. She's made up for lost time.

It's been 11 years since she moved to the U.S. from Nicaragua and five years since she decided to pursue a GED. Moran, now 38, can proudly read and write English and knows how to multiply and divide.

The Corpus Christi ISD Adult Learning Center, where she completed three levels of English as a second language classes and is working toward earning a GED, has helped her gain independence.

"Todas tenemos hambre de mejorarnos (We are all hungry to better ourselves,)" she said of her peers at the center.

Moran is one of about 500 students who have enrolled in GED, ESL and literacy classes this year at the center. The Del Mar College Family Literacy Program is free for anyone 17 and older seeking a GED, wanting to learn English or seeking certification offered to GED and ESL students.  READ MORE @ 

@ReadingWorks

James Samuel reads his love letter to his wife

Katie Couric: 3.25.2016

Meet 56-year-old James Samuel. He's learning to read thanks to Reading Works and their literacy partners. And the one of the first things he wrote was a love letter to his wife.  #CitiesRising yhoo.it/1S9ybxf    VIDEO