Literacy: Spanning the U.S.
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Literacy and Beyond moving to just serve moms, children
Times Herald: 6.06.2017 by Nicole Hayden
Kristy Loxton has passed three
of her GED subject tests so far, with only the math test left to tackle. After
years without a diploma, she’s feeling pretty happy that she is so close to
building a more stable life for her and her daughter.
Loxton, 24, of Lexington, is
a student at Literacy and Beyond, a GED prep center in
Port Huron. She said her success is directly tied to the fact that the program
not only allows her to bring her daughter with her every day, but provides
child care and education for her 3-year-old as well.
“She loves it here,” Loxton
said, referring to her daughter Alexis. “She asks me every day if she can come
to school.”
In the coming year, Literacy
and Beyond will be able to help even more students just like Loxton thanks to
several grants and the purchase of a new building. In addition, while the
organization has served all students in the past, its plans to open the program
only to young moms and their children in the upcoming year.
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Jessie Wiegand, Literacy and
Beyond program manager, said while the GED program has focused on helping all
students over the past few years, it will now focus solely on serving mothers
with young children.
The organization offers GED
prep for mothers, early education for their children, and dual learning that
brings both the mothers and children together to learn at the same time. The
program starts after Labor Day and runs for 44 weeks. Students attend class
Monday through Friday, either in the morning or afternoon.
“Research shows that
children’s education is directly tied to mom’s education,” Hinkley said. “That
why the 2 GEN approach is so important. We are targeting both vulnerable moms
and kids at the same time, in the same place.”
By offering early childhood
education, it also overcomes one big barrier that young moms have when trying
to earn their GED – childcare. READ MORE @
Drake's Adult Literacy Center
focuses on the small things
Des Moines Register: 6.08.2017 by
Molly Longman
About 17 years ago, Kay Runner
sat in her truck in front of the Drake University's School of Education
building. She'd stopped by the school a couple of times before to check out Drake's
adult literacy center, but she could never force herself to go
inside.
But that day something was
different.
"I moved my truck to
different spots in the parking lot a few times, and then I said, 'Nope, you
know what, Kay? You're going in."
Runner, now 70, has been
returning to the building once a week, for a good portion of the past 17 years
for a program that helps adults who never learned to read and write well.
"It takes a lot of nerve
for an adult to come in and ask for help," Runner remembers. "When
you're talking about adults that have a hard time reading or have shortcomings,
it's hard to admit. It's hard to bring yourself in. It takes a lot of
gumption."
The Des Moines native
originally came to the center for help taking the General Educational
Development exam, or GED. Once she passed in 1994, she stopped attending
sessions for a while, but came back a year or so later to continue her
education.
"Just because someone
gets their GED doesn't mean they know how to read very well," Runner says.
"I never used to read, and now I have a whole bookcase that's full of
books that I've read,"
Her favorite book is "A
Walk in the Woods," but she says she never would have read it without the
help of her tutors at the adult literacy center.
"I'm 70 and severely
dyslexic, so learning has gotten harder for me with age and so it's better for
me to come to class," Runner said. READ MORE @
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Cincinnati.com: 6.09.2017 by Sheila Vilvens
Rick has a
secret. It’s one he’s hid all of his adult life.
“It’s
embarrassing,” he said. Rick, a Mount Washington man who wishes to keep his
last name anonymous, can’t read. Or couldn’t until a year ago when he finally
sought help from the Literacy
Council of Clermont and Brown Counties.
They paired him
with a reading partner, Tom McAndrews of Union Township. Every Wednesday for
the past year the two have met for hour long reading sessions. Recently Rick
finished the book “Hatchet”.
“I read the
last two chapters by myself,” he proudly announced.
This is the
type of success story the Clermont County Domestic Courts hopes to facilitate through
a new partnership with the Literacy Council of Clermont and Brown Counties. At
the very least the courts hope to help non-readers and low-level readers who
are unrepresented by attorneys get through upwards of 40 online papers involved
in proceedings like divorce, Judge Kathleen Rodenberg said.
The idea began
with compliance officer/mediator Kay Heile. She deals with a lot of people
without lawyers, Rodenberg said.
“I had never
given it much thought, that we might have people who have trouble reading,” she
said.
But it was
something Heile was seeing along with her colleagues and was tasked with
addressing. That’s when Heile reached out to Susan Vilardo, the executive
director of the literacy council.
Through the
partnership, Vilardo said they hope to help people navigate their way through
their court proceedings and at the same time make them aware of the services
provided by the literacy council. READ MORE @
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