Literacy: Spanning the U.S.
Food fest and collector car show to benefit
literacy group
Daily Tribune: 4.25.2016
Some 170,000 adults in Oakland County alone cannot
read – which makes it harder to find gainful employment or build a legacy for
generations to come.
Rectifying this epidemic has been a lifelong
pursuit for Robert Gaylor, the 1984 founder of Oakland
Literacy Council (OLC), the county’s only organization
offering free, one-on-one literacy tutoring for adults age 18 and older.
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The Oakland Literacy Council helps nearly 600
people every year learn to read. Every adult who comes to the program, whether
an American native or foreign-born, is paired with a volunteer tutor. They meet
weekly, focused on a goal of achieving literacy ease.
Illiteracy prevents people from getting a job
because they can’t fill out an application. They can’t read signs. One student
came to OLC because she couldn’t figure out which bathroom to use in a
restaurant and had to wait outside the doors to see whether a man or woman
emerged.
An estimated 60 percent of prisoners in U.S. jails
read below a 6th grade level. It is nearly impossible to change one’s life path
without the tools most Americans take for granted – a basic mastery of
communication skills is a crucial key to success. READ MORE @
Teach someone to read
Suffolk News-Herald:
4.27.2016
Just about anyone who’s actually reading this
newspaper would recognize the importance of the ability to read in modern
society. But simply being able to keep up with current events through the
newspaper is only a small part of what makes reading so important. From being
able to follow a recipe to reading a map to understanding the instruction
manual of one’s car, reading is a vital skill that makes life more livable.
It’s surprising, then, that one in six adults in
Suffolk reads below a fifth-grade level. That statistic comes from Jessica
Reitz, tutor coordinator for the Suffolk
Literacy Council, an organization founded on a desire to stamp
out illiteracy in the city.
The organization was honored recently, by
extension, through an award given by the Pilot Club of Suffolk to Louise Ross,
who has been tutoring reading students here for a couple of years since her
retirement as a teacher and a nurse. READ MORE @
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| @eriehouse |
Erie House Program
Bridges Language and Culture Divides
Erie House: April 25, 2016
Jubilar, the Spanish translation of
retire, is derived from the Latin root jubilo. And seeing as jubilo denotes an
“exclamation of joy”—think jubilation or jubilee
—the Spanish translation seems
more appropriate for the occasion. It is, after all, an opportunity to explore
new places, try new things and meet new people.
So when Barbara Reed retired from a
career working in the nonprofit sector, she was eager to take advantage of the
new season of life she had entered. “One of the things I wanted to do was learn
Spanish a bit more,” she says. Reed explains that she liked the idea of
learning the language, and she knew it would open a new world for her both at
home and abroad.
That journey began at Erie
Neighborhood House after she received a referral during
a trip to the dentist. “My dental hygienist speaks Spanish, and I told her I
was trying to improve my Spanish skills,” she recalls. Familiar with Erie House,
the hygienist encouraged her to explore volunteer opportunities there.
Reed first connected with Susana
Ortiz, community literacy program coordinator at Erie House, and soon
thereafter began tutoring and leading conversation groups in Chicago’s West Town
neighborhood.
Ortiz’s program is funded by the
Illinois Secretary of State’s Adult Volunteer Literacy Grant and taps into a
strong volunteer network to provide individualized instruction and support to
adult learners. READ MORE @
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| @Saving_Stories |
Saving stories: Book project gives voice to
refugees' history, culture
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:
4.29.2016 by M. Thomas
Sometimes a project launched with one intent takes
on a life of its own and becomes meaningful beyond expectation. That’s what happened
with “Saving Stories,” which began as an aid teaching English as a Second
Language in the Baldwin-Whitehall
School District and now has the potential to become a
national model.
The project collects stories, folk tales, songs
and poems from refugees who have resettled into the district and prepares them
for publication as bilingual books. Eight of the manuscripts are ready for
print and four of those have been published. They premiered March 21 during an
event that drew more than 100 to the Whitehall
Public Library.
“It started as a way for my students to learn
English easier and faster,” said Renee Christman of Whitehall, who teaches
English as a Second Language at Paynter Elementary School. “It’s become a
wonderful way to acknowledge the language and culture of our residents.”
Ms. Christman knew that people literate in their
native language more easily learn a second one. Before resettling in the U.S.,
many refugees spend years in camps, which often lack educational opportunities,
and she saw the book project serving the added purpose of renewing native
literacy while familiarizing participants with English. READ MORE @
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| @LitNet |
Literacy
Network launches capital campaign
Channel3000.com - WISC-TV3: 5.03.2016 by David Dahmer
More
than 55,000 adults who live and work in Dane County face major challenges with
literacy. A high percentage live in poverty and those challenges with literacy
hold them back from advancing in their jobs and in their lives and keeps them
from increasing their contributions to their family and this community.
Literacy Network is a non-profit organization founded
in 1974 in Madison. Staff, teachers, tutors, volunteers and donors work
together to help adult learners improve their literacy in Dane County. They
served more than 1,000 adults last year with the help of more than 800
volunteers who gave 30,000 hours of time. But Literacy Network Executive
Director Jeff Burkhart knows they can do so much more.
On
April 28 at their annual Reading Between the Wines fundraising event, he
announced a new capital campaign that will bring Literacy Network into a newer,
larger building and help them serve more people.
“Our
campaign has raised about $1 million so far,” Burkhart tolds Madison365. “With
this new push that started at Reading Between The Wines, we hope to raise
another $2 million that will pay for the building’s renovation, technology
installation and upgrades, and organizational capacity. READ MORE @
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