Wednesday, June 28, 2017

Literacy – Spanning the US :: Kauai HI :: Canton IL :: Chicago IL

Literacy: Spanning the U.S.

@HawaiiLiteracy
Kauai Adult Literacy seeks students to work on reading, writing
Garden Island: 6.06.2017 by Alden Alayvilla

Kanani Santos was never a good student. He seldom paid attention in class and his relationship with teachers was subpar.

Add those traits to a lack of commitment and focus, and the sum was that reading and writing had been difficult for the 39-year-old business owner.

But his perspective changed two years ago.

“It took me a while to wake up. In my older years, I felt like it’s time to grow as a person,” Santos said. “I can’t stay on that level. I wanted to be successful at my business. I wanted to do things. I wanted to make something out of my life. In order to do that, reading and writing are the fundamentals of life.”

Santos connected with Dennis Dresser, coordinator for Kauai Adult Literacy, a branch of Hawaii Literacy. Established in 1971, the volunteer-run nonprofit has helped thousands of adults learn to read and write and improve their skills.

“We see these people come out, get their citizenship, get good jobs,” Dresser said. “It just does the heart good.”  READ MORE @

This week, the Dollar General Literacy Foundation awarded Spoon River College an $8,000 grant to support adult literacy.
Canton Daily Ledger: 6.07.2017

This local grant award is part of more than $7.5 million in grants awarded to nearly 900 schools, nonprofits and organizations across the 44 states that Dollar General serves.

“With the help of trained volunteers, qualified instructors and staff, our programs are centered upon improving our students’ reading, writing, and math levels while understanding their unique needs and goals. These grant funds help us provide flexible, student-centered, confidential, and free adult literacy services,” said Chad Murphy, director of the Spoon River College Adult Education and Family Literacy Program.

“Our Adult Education program, including staff, is funded completely by federal and state grants, and Spoon River College is currently the only adult education provider for literacy, English as a Second Language, and high school equivalency exam preparation in our district, so we are extremely appreciative of this grant from the Dollar General Literacy Foundation,” said SRC President Curt Oldfield.

“Consistent with our mission of Serving Others, we are excited to provide these organizations with funding to further literacy and education across the communities we call home,” said Todd Vasos, Dollar General’s CEO. “It is always so exciting to see the true and meaningful impact the Dollar General Literacy Foundation has on both children and adults looking to improve their lives through literacy.”  READ MORE @

@LitWorksChicago
Everywhere Wireless teams up with Literacy Works to help stem low literacy crisis among Chicago adults
Benzinga: 6.07.2017

More than 30 million adults in the United States, including over half a million Chicago citizens, have reading, writing and math skills below or at the third-grade level. As a result, they are four times as likely to be in poor health, two times more probable to be unemployed, ten times more likely to raise children with low literacy skills and can expect to earn half as much over their lifetimes compared to adults with more advanced levels of literacy.

In other words, low literacy is a serious national crisis that's taking a particularly tough toll on adults in Chicago. To help bring the crisis to its knees, Chicago-based Internet service provider Everywhere Wireless has joined forces with Literacy Works, which since 1995 has been committed to building a strong network of adult literacy programs, connecting learners and tutors to opportunities, and empowering diverse organizations to effectively serve adults with low literacy.

With the goal of helping teach 1,000 Chicagoans to read, the Everywhere Wireless + Literacy Works Partnership is focused on two key events:  READ MORE @

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National Literacy & Library Events :: July 2017

National Literacy & Library Events :: July 2017

SCLLN
Literacy & Library Events & Conferences
- Local, California and National -
visit
the Southern California Library Literacy Network
for more information

Summer Slide – Big Universe

July 02   National Literacy Day
July 07   Conference on Books, Publishing & Libraries London UK
Jul 10+   Literacy Symposium 2017 CyberSpace
Jul 10+   Summer Literacy Institute Lesley Univ Cambridge MA
Jul 10+   Summer Literacy Institute Hamline School of Educ Saint Paul MN
Jul 10+   Summer Literacy Institute Longwood University Farmville VA
July 12+ Urban Librarians Partners Conference Philadelphia PA
July 13    Summer Learning Day
July 13    Scholastic Reading Summit Houston TX
July 13    Adult Literacy XPRIZE Virtual Community Summit CyberSpace 10a
July 15+ Autism Society National Conference Milwaukee WI
July 15+ International Literacy Assoc Conference Orlando FL
July 15    Wheatley Book Awards Columbia Univ NY
July 18    Scholastic Reading Summit Wash DC
July 19    Community-Based Health Literacy Interventions Washington DC
July 20+ Literacies for All Summer Institute Tucson AZ
July 20   Scholastic Reading Summit Seattle WA
July 25+ Conference on Distance Teaching & Learning Madison WI
July 28+ National Book Club Conference Atlanta GA
July 28+ Summer Children's Literature Institute Simmons College Boston MA
July 30+ Correction Education Assoc Conference San Antonio TX

State Library Associations :: Conferences
African American Book Events
Book Fairs by State Library of Congress
Children’s Book Council Kid Lit Events
College Children’s & Young Adult Literature Conferences Festivals
Everfest Book Festival Calendar
ILA :: Literacy Calendar Worldwide
Storytelling Events
US Book Festivals

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Sunday, June 25, 2017

Literacy – Spanning the US :: Greenwood Co SC :: Ardmore OK :: Williamson Co TN

Literacy: Spanning the U.S.

Greenwood County Library offers ESL classes
Index Journal: 6.04.2017 by Conor Hughes

Maria Woolum said she "lived in the dark" her first few years in Greenwood.

She came to the city from Mexico about 10 years ago with her husband, a Kentucky native who works for Capsugel.

She didn't speak the language or know the culture and relied on her husband for everything.

"I didn't understand nothing -- words, the news or what happened in your community," Woolum said. "For me, I needed to learn English." 

Then she learned about the English as a second language classes offered by the Greenwood County Library and gradually started to come out of isolation.

"We need an ESL program because we have so many new people coming in to Greenwood County, and they're coming from all different countries to live here, to work here, to build a new life here," Library Director Prudence Taylor said. 

The classes started in February 2012, Taylor said, after the Greenwood Literacy Council dissolved in 2011, leaving a vacuum in the community.

"I had people asking me if the library could pick up that role," Taylor said. "I did some research and I looked at public libraries that had literacy and ESL programs. Most of the ones I found that were successful were in California. So I made my notes and I just prayed about it and I put it aside, because I knew the time would come when I could do something with that."

In 2012, Taylor hired Lois Strauss, who built the program from the ground up.  READ MORE @

Graduates take next step across the stage
Ardmoreite: 6.04.2017 by Stephen Lamar

Graduates walking across the stage in the month of May and transitioning into a new chapter of life isn’t a rare occurrence.

Many students from a young age dream of walking across the stage, with their family and friends cheering them on as they receive their diploma. The journey to the moment before crossing the stage can be a long one for many students.

For the graduates who took that walk on May 25 in the Ardmore Convention Center, their journey wasn’t a conventional story.

The Ardmore Literacy Leadership — a collection of area organizations focused on improving literacy in the community — conducted its graduation ceremony honoring students who graduated from English Language classes, GED courses and even two new citizens of the United States. The ceremony was like any other traditional graduation, complete with pomp and circumstance, caps and gowns and a ceremonial walking of the stage to receive a diploma or certificate.

The journeys and stories of those walking, however, are unlike any other.

Leslie Kutz, executive director of Ardmore Family Literacy, said many of the students have pushed through the struggles of life to reach the moment of graduating. Ardmore Family Literacy works with incoming students on earning their GED, with many of the students previously dropping out of school. She said her students — 15 from Ardmore Family Literacy — wouldn’t have missed the ceremony for the world.  READ MORE @

Adult Learning
Center
Author! Author! benefit luncheon brings novelists, funds adult literacy
Spring Hill: 6.05.2017

Continuing its long-held “third Thursday of June” tradition, Author! Author!, an annual celebration of literacy and the written word, returns June 15.

The Adult Learning Center of Williamson County’s 13th annual benefit luncheon features authors Kelly Oliver, Dana Chamblee Carpenter and Michael J. Tucker.
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author J.T. Ellison will emcee the two-hour event at Brentwood Country Club.

Established in 1986 as the Literacy Council of Williamson County, the Adult Learning Center continues to provide free programs that help adults develop reading, writing, conversation and math skills. Author! Author! is the ALC’s signature annual event and largest fundraiser.

“With Williamson County’s booming population, the need for our services grows too,” Executive Director Rita Dozier said. “But therein lies the struggle for non-profits like ours that serve one or more of the ‘hidden populations’ within our affluent and educated county. The need is not always visible, especially to those with the time or financial resources needed to help keep vital services like the ones we offer going.”

ALC’s staff and volunteers provide small group and one-on- one tutoring at ALC’s Franklin office and in spaces hosted by community partners. Other programs include on-site education at the Williamson County Jail and English as a Second Language conversation classes. Many adults have completed its high school equivalency (GED) program.  READ MORE @

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Thursday, June 22, 2017

Millennials are the most likely generation of Americans to use public libraries

Millennials are the most likely generation of Americans to use public libraries
Pew Research Center: 6.21.2017 by Abigail Geiger

Millennials in America are more likely to have visited a public library in the past year than any other adult generation.

A new analysis of Pew Research Center survey data from fall 2016 finds that 53% of Millennials (those ages 18 to 35 at the time) say they used a library or bookmobile in the previous 12 months. That compares with 45% of Gen Xers, 43% of Baby Boomers and 36% of those in the Silent Generation. (It is worth noting that the question wording specifically focused on use of public libraries, not on-campus academic libraries.)

All told, 46% of adults ages 18 and older say they used a public library or bookmobile in the previous 12 months – a share that is broadly consistent with Pew Research Center findings in recent years.

Members of the youngest adult generation are also more likely than their elders to have used library websites. About four-in-ten Millennials (41%) used a library website in the past 12 months, compared with 24% of Boomers. In all, 31% of adults used a library website in the past 12 months, which is similar to the percentage that reported using library websites in late 2015.  READ MORE @

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Wednesday, June 21, 2017

Literacy – Spanning the US :: Plumas Co CA :: Berkshire Co MA :: Baltimore MD

Literacy: Spanning the U.S.

Abandoned courts blossom with new purpose
Plumas News: 6.03.2017 by Victoria Metcalf

It’s easy to see why a good game of tennis hasn’t taken place on the Gansner Park courts for some time. Cracks are a good place for weeds to take hold, and the surface dips and buckles in various places. Dried leaves, not abandoned tennis balls line the parameter of the chain link fencing. Hopefully by late summer, rich crops of vegetables will have taken over.

Long disused tennis courts at Gansner Park are being repurposed — as family gardens.

Instead of black asphalt with grass and weeds growing between the cracks, this summer it will be a place where vegetables and fruit grow.

It’s definitely a case of out with the old and in with the new in more than one sense. When Plumas County Literacy abandoned its Garden Behind Bars program, it was time to move to a new location.

With permission from Plumas County Facilities Services Director Dony Sawchuk and a nod from Supervisor Lori Simpson, and of course the key to unlock the long unused gate, the new program began.

Last summer and fall, inmates began removing soil and disassembling raised boxes and a redwood greenhouse that took up the back portion of the Plumas County Sheriff’s Corrections Center. Originally, the task began when Plumas County Literacy was told that a large greenhouse was going to be installed. The greenhouse didn’t materialize, but the dirt and materials were piled for future use.

That first summer of Garden Behind Bars in 2013 was filled with plans and promises.

Thanks to a dedicated crew of inmates, including a former contractor who seemingly could build anything provided he had the wood and the tools — the program grew and grew. Inmates had the opportunity to enjoy a wide variety of fresh tomatoes, salad greens and much more.

But then new programs, work opportunities, electronic monitoring and house arrest reduced the number of inmates available to work in the garden.  READ MORE @

Meet Gloria Escobar: An English Language Learner who now teaches others financial literacy
Berkshire Eagle: 6.03.2017 by Reinout Van Wagtendonk 🎧

Her colleagues at Housatonic Curtains stopped sewing when the news broke about the 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. Gloria Escobar-Huertas could sense her co-workers' fear. But she didn’t understand.

“At that time I didn’t speak English and nobody around me could explain the situation,” Escobar recalls.  “So I didn’t know if I had to get out of the building, or what else to do. Only when I came home and could watch the Spanish TV channels I understood how big was the catastrophe.”

She had emigrated from Bogota, Colombia, with her husband, Jose, and two young sons, Andres and Daniel,  just a year earlier. She already took English classes whenever she could -- five nights a week and some mornings -- in Pittsfield and Great Barrington. But the frightening confusion of that catastrophic day was an even stronger motivation.

@litnetsb 
“I said, ‘I need to be able to communicate with people.’ ”

Today, communicating is Escobar’s job. As community development coordinator at Greylock Federal Credit Union, her mission is “to promote and provide financial literacy education.” She does so at area schools, at companies such as Onyx Specialty Papers and nonprofit organizations such as Berkshire Children & Families. She works with more than just other immigrants.  PODCAST

@StrongCityBalt
David’s literacy journey has given him freedom and allowed him to write gospel songs
ProLiteracy: 6.04.2017 📹

The death of a loved one is never easy, but for David, it was especially hard. After his mother passed away two years ago, David was embarrassed that he had to rely on others to fill out the paperwork to put her affairs in order. She had been a brilliant woman, who went back to school at age 50 and eventually completed her doctorate in theology. David knew he had to make some changes in his own life to honor her memory, so he decided to enroll in a local literacy program to learn how to read and write.

The first program he tried put him in a large class, which brought back painful memories of getting lost in the shuffle at a crowded public school. But he eventually found a one-on-one tutor, Sandy, and has been working with her at Strong City Baltimore at a fantastic, steady pace. He’s been writing his own gospel music, traveling with his choir, and hopes to soon start his own janitorial business. He’s joined several social media sites, and loves communicating with his church group online.

David is also reveling in the independence his newfound literacy grants him. He’s no longer afraid of taking public transportation, and loves that he can find his way around on the bus or on the train. Learning to read and write has opened so many doors for him — both literally and spiritually.  WATCH VIDEO

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Monday, June 19, 2017

Librarian of Congress Names Tracy K. Smith Poet Laureate

Librarian of Congress Names Tracy K. Smith Poet Laureate
Library of Congress: 6.14.2017

Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden today announced the appointment of Tracy K. Smith as the Library’s 22nd Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry for 2017-2018. Smith will take up her duties in the fall, opening the Library’s annual literary season in September with a reading of her work in the Coolidge Auditorium.

Life on Mars
Smith, a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and a professor at Princeton University, succeeds Juan Felipe Herrera as Poet Laureate.

“It gives me great pleasure to appoint Tracy K. Smith, a poet of searching,” Hayden said. “Her work travels the world and takes on its voices; brings history and memory to life; calls on the power of literature as well as science, religion and pop culture. With directness and deftness, she contends with the heavens or plumbs our inner depths—all to better understand what makes us most human.”

“I am profoundly honored,” Smith said. “As someone who has been sustained by poems and poets, I understand the powerful and necessary role poetry can play in sustaining a rich inner life and fostering a mindful, empathic and resourceful culture. I am eager to share the good news of poetry with readers and future readers across this marvelously diverse country.”

Smith joins a long line of distinguished poets who have served in the position, including Juan Felipe Herrera, Charles Wright, Natasha Trethewey, Philip Levine, W.S. Merwin, Kay Ryan, Charles Simic, Donald Hall, Ted Kooser, Louise Glück, Billy Collins, Stanley Kunitz, Robert Pinsky, Robert Hass and Rita Dove.

The new Poet Laureate is the author of three books of poetry, including “Life on Mars” (2011), winner of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry; “Duende” (2007), winner of the 2006 James Laughlin Award and the 2008 Essence Literary Award; and “The Body’s Question” (2003), winner of the Cave Canem Poetry Prize. Smith is also the author of a memoir, “Ordinary Light” (2015), a finalist for the 2015 National Book Award in nonfiction and selected as a notable book by the New York Times and the Washington Post.  READ MORE @

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Sunday, June 18, 2017

Literacy – Spanning the US :: Brunswick Co NC :: Watertown NY :: Wilmington NC

Literacy: Spanning the U.S.

Brunswick Co
Literacy Council
Brunswick County Literacy Council receives $10K Dollar General grant
Brunswick Beacon: 5.30.2017

Brunswick County Literacy Council is the recipient of a $10,000 Dollar General Literacy Foundation grant announced by the foundation May 11 and will use the funds to support the council’s ongoing adult literacy programs.

The award is one of more than $7.5 million in Dollar General grants to nearly 900 schools, nonprofits and organizations nationwide.

“This grant will help the council continue to address our county’s most pressing literacy needs,” Dot Hoerr, BCLC executive director, said in a news release.

BCLC, founded in 1981 at the suggestion of Brunswick Community College, is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to helping Brunswick County adults 16 and older achieve their personal goals through improved literacy skills. Council programs and services are offered to students in small groups or one-on-one tutoring. Council training concentrates on:
Reading — Ability to read above a fourth grade level.
Writing — Capacity to write in clear and reasonably accurate language.
Math — Ability to perform basic mathematical operations needed in everyday life.
English as a Second Language, Health literacy, Job training and Financial literacy.  READ MORE @

Literacy
Northern NY
Celebrating 50 years, Literacy of Northern New York sees success in student’s shop
Watertown Daily Times: 5.31.2017 by Jen Jackson

Edith Nebie hardly spoke a lick of English two years ago — last month she opened her own shop in Watertown, her second store on as many continents.

Mrs. Nebie is one of many adult students of Literacy of Northern New York learning English as a secondary language. With the help of her two-year tutor and LNNY board member Carla Haas, Mrs. Nebie made a business plan, rented a space at 611 Coffeen St., and opened the African clothing and home decor shop Lobel Design Coumbel Fashion.

According to Mrs. Haas, it was a matter of translating Mrs. Niebe’s knowledge and business acumen, already garnered in her native Burkina Faso, a nation in West Africa. Mrs. Nebie, who speaks several African dialects and is fluent in French, has also had a successful women and children’s clothing store for years in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

LNNY is celebrating its 50th year of training volunteers and tutoring adults in reading, writing, math or English as a second language in Jefferson and Lewis counties. The nonprofit serves locals and north country natives as well as many international residents, learning the language and finding their places in the community.  READ MORE @

@cfliteracy
Can You Read This?
Wilmington Biz: 6.01.2017 by Yasmin Tomkinson - Executive Director, Cape Fear Literacy Council

More than 30,000,000 adults in the United States cannot read, write or do basic math above a third-grade level, according to non-profit organization ProLiteracy.

In New Hanover County, the National Assessment of Adult Literacy estimates that nine percent of adults are at a “below basic” level of literacy, and 29 percent are at a “basic” level. That’s more than 61,000 adults whose skills are not good enough to do all they need to do for themselves, their families, their jobs or the community.

In today’s modern society, it can be difficult to understand how so many adults struggle to read. Each person is unique, and an individual set of circumstances prevented him or her from learning needed skills.

═════════►‎
The impact of low literacy is profound.

Consider the daily challenges for an individual navigating life with limited reading ability:
Is this letter from my child’s school regarding problems or praise? 
Is the fuel pump diesel or unleaded? 
How do I fill out an online job application?

═════════►
Cape Fear Literacy Council (CFLC) has been serving adults in this community for more than 30 years. We offer free assessment and instruction in both Adult Literacy and English as a Second Language.  We leverage the talents of dedicated volunteers to serve as one-on-one tutors and small-class instructors.  READ MORE @

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