2017 Literacy Leadership Awards :: National Coalition for Literacy

2017 Literacy Leadership Awards

National Coalition for Literacy: September 2017

The Board of Directors of the National Coalition for Literacy is pleased to announce the winners of the 2017 Literacy Leadership Awards. The decision process was challenging this year, as we had eight nominations submitted. Thank you for your nominations and for your ongoing support for this long-standing public awareness initiative.

The NCL Literacy Leadership Awards recognize individuals and organizations that have made extraordinary national contributions to improving adult literacy and English language learning in the United States. This year, the NCL will recognize the following outstanding individuals and organizations:

§ Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), for her long-standing dedication to our nation’s adult literacy and language programs and her efforts to safeguard education and other critical programs that ensure equal employment opportunity for adults with low literacy levels, most recently as Ranking Member of the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Subcommittee.

§ Dr. Stephen Reder, Professor Emeritus of Applied Linguistics, Portland State University, for his tireless advocacy for adult learners and the field of adult education, and for his extensive research on the impacts of adult literacy skills attainment, culminating in the 10-year Longitudinal Study of Adult Learning that has demonstrated the correlation between participation in adult education and increases in income, educational attainment, and civic participation.

§ Dr. Sharon Darling, Founder and President, the National Center for Families Learning, for her key role in recognizing the critical link between parents' education and children's learning, and for her nearly three decades of leadership in in establishing a nationwide network of programs that provide high quality, accessible family-based education and that have helped over one million vulnerable families learn and thrive together.

§ The Minnesota ABE Teaching and Learning Advancement System (ATLAS) at Hamline University, for its innovative, practitioner-centered program that provides quality in-service professional development for the ABE/ESOL workforce, promoting program and instructional quality, informing adult literacy practice nationwide, and producing national leaders in the field.

The 2017 Literacy Leadership Awards event will take place on Wednesday, October 4, from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m., in Washington, DC in the Rayburn House Office Building, Room 2043. The event is free and open to the public; all NCL members and others interested in promoting adult education and family literacy are welcome to attend.  READ MORE @

National Literacy & Library Events :: October 2017

National Literacy & Library Events :: October 2017

SCLLN

Literacy & Library Events & Conferences

- Local, California and National -

visit

the Southern California Library Literacy Network

for more information

Dyslexia Awareness Month

Health Literacy Month

National Book Month

Oct. 02   Global Read Aloud - KOALA LOU Mem Fox

Oct. 04   Random Acts of Poetry Day

Oct. 04   National Coalition for Literacy - Literacy Leadership Awards Washington DC 5p

Oct. 05   World Teachers' Day

Oct. 05+ Comic Con New York

Oct. 06+ National Storytelling Festival Jonesborough TN

Oct. 06+ Boston Globe–Horn Book Awards Simmons College

Oct. 07   Horn Book at Simmons Colloquium: Resistance: Children’s Books in Troubled Times Boston MA

Oct. 07   Picture Book Summit

Oct. 08+ Health Literacy Research Conference HARC & ICCH Baltimore MD

Oct. 09   Global Read Aloud - POSSUM MAGIC Mem Fox

Oct. 09+ Teen Read Week

Oct. 09+ Families Learning Summit Tucson AZ

Oct. 11   Day of the Girl

Oct. 11   Library 2.017 Worldwide Virtual Conf Makerspaces

Oct. 11+ Urban Libraries Council Annual Forum Saint Paul MN

Oct. 12   Reading Horizons Online Dyslexia Summit 2, 4, 6 pm EDT

Oct. 12+ Texas Health Literacy Conference San Antonio TX

Oct. 13    Plain Language Day

Oct. 15+ National Friends of Libraries Week

Oct. 15   Star Wars Reads Day

Oct. 16   Dictionary Day

Oct. 16   Global Read Aloud - WHOEVER YOU ARE Mem Fox

Oct. 18+ Closing the Gap Conference Minneapolis MN

Oct. 19   Read For The Record - Quackers

Oct. 19+ Conference on Learning Disabilities Baltimore MD

Oct. 20   National Day of Writing

Oct. 22+ Literacy for ALL Conference Providence RI

Oct. 23   Global Read Aloud - HATTIE & THE FOX Mem Fox

Oct. 23+ Internet Librarian Monterey CA

Oct. 23+ Conference on Afterschool and Summer Learning Phoenix AZ

Oct. 25+ COABE Virtual Conference

Oct. 25+ Health Literacy Media & Health Literacy Summit Kansas City MO

Oct. 25+ Natl Council for Workforce Education Conf Salt Lake City UT

Oct. 26+ National Black Book Festival Houston TX

Oct. 27+ Read. Write. Act. Virtual Conference

Oct. 28   Make A Difference Day

Oct. 30   Global Read Aloud - TOUGH BORIS Mem Fox

Oct. 31+ AAACE Annual Conference Memphis TN

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

Literacy – Spanning the US :: Pearl River Co MS :: Manitowoc WI :: Chatham Co NC

Literacy: Spanning the U.S.

Hattiesburg woman gets second chance through adult education

Hattiesburg American: 8.24.2017 by Lici Beveridge

Minerva Avalos was a budding entrepreneur in 1999 with a thriving business that kept her busy most days.

But working 13-plus hours a day was wearing on her, so in 2013 her son, Carlos Molina, took over the business, La Mexicana restaurant and grocery store.

Avalos, 53, of Hattiesburg was a single parent. She had no education, no other work experience, so finding a job that would pay the bills was virtually impossible.

"I tried to look for a job," she said. "I just ran into so many walls."

She enrolled in Pearl River Community College and in just a few months earned her GED and four work-skills certifications.

In December, she watched her son graduate from Southern Miss. In May, it was her son's turn to watch his mother graduate from PRCC at the top of her class.  WATCH

Manitowoc literacy partners unlock world of opportunities at library

Herald Times Reporter: 8.26.2017 by Mary Petersen, Literacy Coordinator: One-to-One Adult Literacy Partners

What if you didn’t read English well enough to complete a job application? Or understand the directions on your prescription bottle? Or read your child’s report card?

When you can read and write, you can fill out a job application, understand a prescription label and more easily communicate with your doctor, child’s teacher, co-workers and employer.

Quite simply, a whole new world of opportunities opens up to you when you can read and understand the language.

The vision of One-to-One Adult Literacy Partners is for every adult in Manitowoc County to have the English literacy skills necessary to succeed in life.

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The program name was changed to “One-to-One Adult Literacy Partners” in 2014, and in 2015, the former “Adult R.E.A.D.” program — which focused on tutoring native English speakers  —was melded with One-to-One Adult Literacy Partners.  READ MORE @

@chathamliteracy

They’ve got a wealth of experience. Now they’re sharing it, helping immigrants to reach their dreams.

Herald Sun: 8.27.2017 by Tammy Grubb

Some came to America for love and family; others were children whose parents wanted a better life.

Maribel Ruiz, 37, was in the third- or fourth-grade, she said, when her family traveled to the United States. For a long time, she lacked the confidence to trade her Permanent Resident Card, more commonly known as a Green Card, which allowed her to live and work in the country, for citizenship, she said.

“My friends around here, co-workers, motivated me,” said Ruiz, a senior housekeeper at the Carolina Meadows retirement community in northern Chatham County.

This summer, she and five other Carolina Meadows employees — Dinora Cantarero, Sara Salgado, Carmen Hernandez, Wendy Lissette Rivas Oporto and retiree Rosario Yruegas — celebrated attaining U.S. citizenship in the past year.

Their tutors — Carolina Meadows residents Gustavo Maroni, Mary Morrow and Margaret Miles, and non-resident Joanne Caye — showed a lot of patience in helping them study, Ruiz said. She no longer fears what could happen if immigration laws change.

Citizenship means “freedom that there’s no way they would actually take me away from here, and I can be with my kids,” she said. “I want everybody that has their resident card to do their best to try and get their citizenship for better opportunities.”

The Chatham County Literacy Council partnered with Carolina Meadows in 2011 to train its residents to tutor its staff members, providing English for Speakers of Other Languages, citizenship, and adult basic and secondary education classes.  READ MORE @

Adult Education and Family Literacy Week

Adult Education and Family Literacy Week

National Coalition for Literacy: 2017

36 MILLION ADULTS in the United States struggle with basic academic skills, making it difficult to function effectively as workers, parents, citizens, and consumers in today’s society.

Adult literacy intersects with almost every socioeconomic issue—parenting, health, workforce development, and poverty.  To address these issues effectively, we must invest in educating parents and workers. Adult education helps break the cycles of intergenerational illiteracy and poverty by giving adults the skills they need to be successful as workers and parents.  The value of adult low literacy to our economy in additional wages and the reduction in costs for public support programs is estimated at more than $200 billion per year. Increasing adults’ level of education is a sound investment. Yet, public funding of adult education has declined over the last 15 years. Most adult education programs have long student waiting lists. They are able to serve only a fraction of adults who need services.

INCOME INEQUALITY

Low literacy has an adverse effect on the employability and earnings of American adults. The widening “skills gap” continues to have an increasing impact on income inequality. Adults without a high school diploma are more than twice as likely to be unemployed, working in low-wage jobs, living in poverty, and relying on government aid programs as those with higher levels of education.   READ MORE @

Literacy – Spanning the US :: Waterville ME :: Walworth Co WI :: Kenosha WI :: San Bernardino Co CA

Literacy: Spanning the U.S.

Literacy

Waterville

Donations from central Maine towns help literacy program expand

Literacy Volunteers Waterville Area helps adults learn to read, a much needed program that can result in greater economic and civic productivity.

Central Maine: 8.20.2017 by Madeline St. Amour

On a sunny day in July, Mona Gagnon, 54, sat at her kitchen table writing in her workbook provided by Literacy Volunteers Waterville Area. She focused on an exercise asking her to separate words into syllables and then rewrite them.

Howard Gagnon, her husband, leaned over her shoulder and waited for her to sound out the words.

“Can we skip it?” Mona said.

“No. Just sound it out,” Howard said.

Mona moved her lips and ran her finger under the word as she looked for ways to break it down.

“Thanks … thanks … thanksgiv … Thanksgiving,” she said, looking up at Howard, 56, before writing the word down in her book.

Three and a half years ago, Mona lost her memory after her medication was increased by one pill, according to Howard.

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About a year ago, one of Mona’s friends suggested she go to Literacy Volunteers to start learning how to read again. Now she’s up to a first-grade reading level, Howard said.

The nonprofit relies almost entirely on volunteer workers to provide adults and families free instruction in reading and writing that are necessary to procuring healthcare, shopping for groceries and other needed items, finding work and even driving.  READ MORE @

WCLC

Learning the language of opportunity

Janesville Gazette: 8.20.2017 by Margaret Plevak

Born in Zagreb, the capital of Croatia, Lilly Barrett came to the United States as a child, so she understands firsthand the difficulties of learning a language while simultaneously navigating life in a new country.

That experience adds a compassionate dimension to her new job as coordinator of the Walworth County Literacy Council, where she assesses the needs of students and matches them to tutors.

“So often people think if somebody doesn't speak English they're not intelligent, that they don't have feelings, they're not human or equal. There are many intelligent people out there, hardworking people, compassionate people, but they're just not able to express themselves. That's something I hope people can see if they get to know others,” says Barrett, a Williams Bay resident who has a background in social services and industrial relations.  READ MORE @

@KenoshaLiteracy 

Literacy level of parents affects next generation

Kenosha News: 8.24.201 by Cheryl Hernandez, Kenosha Literacy Council

Back to school season is here and many of us are thinking of ways that we can help children achieve academic success. It might surprise you to learn that the single greatest indicator of a child’s future success is the literacy level of his or her parents. In fact, children of parents with low literacy skills have a 72% chance of struggling themselves. Low-literate parents who have the opportunity to improve their own skills are more likely to have a positive impact on their children’s educational achievements.

It’s estimated that 36 million adults in the U.S. struggle with basic reading, writing, and math. Because of this, everyday tasks like reading a menu, filling out a job application, or helping children with homework are more difficult. At the Kenosha Literacy Council we see firsthand how adult literacy is a factor in almost every socioeconomic issue, including parenting, health care, workforce development, and poverty.  READ MORE @

Highland Library program aims to improve adult literacy

Highland News: 8.24.2017

The San Bernardino County Library is pleased to provide adult literacy services to the Highland community. The adult literacy program features individualized literacy services in one-on-one, confidential, student-centered sessions.

The program is intended to equip participants with lifelong learning skills and prepare them for personal, family, career and community success. Best of all – this program is absolutely free.

The incredible adult literacy program at the Highland Branch Library is improving the quality of life for residents and making a big difference in the community. The library is proud to offer a program that fosters confidence and enables learners to pursue new opportunities for success.

If you or someone you know struggles with literacy, the Highland Library is here to help.  READ MORE @

Literacy – Spanning the US :: Muskogee OK :: Reading-Berks PA :: Detroit MI

Literacy: Spanning the U.S.

Literacy council efforts go beyond reading instruction

Muskogee Phoenix: 8.18.2017 by Rebecca Walkup

The Muskogee Area Literacy Council is dedicated to helping adults improve all parts of their lives through lifelong learning. The council serves as an advisory body for the Muskogee Public Library adult literacy program. A focus of the organization is on getting the community involved in literacy programing [sic] by recruiting tutors and volunteers as well as promoting literacy programs in the community. Many members of the literacy council are tutors.

Adult literacy programming at the library goes beyond just reading instruction with several focus areas. Adult Basic Education individual tutoring includes reading, spelling, writing, and comprehension; GED preparation courses cover math, science, social studies, and language arts in a group setting. English as a Second Language classes provide beginning to advanced language training, and the U.S. Citizenship test preparation class covers the broad range of material on the citizenship test. Volunteer tutors must be 21 or older, be proficient in English, and have a high school diploma or equivalent. They receive nine hours of initial training taught by literacy staff and must take three hours of continuing education training each year. All classes are completely free for students. Sixty students are currently enrolled in adult literacy courses.  READ MORE @

Literacy Council

Reading-Berks

Variety of services available through Literacy Council of Reading-Berks

Reading Eagle: 8.20.2017 by Michelle N. Lynch

Harry Jeffries always had an affinity for math. In his school days, it was the 49-year-old Reading man's favorite subject.

"I was interested in algebra," he said.

But despite his fascination with numbers and equations, he ended up dropping out of high school.

Jeffries knew if he wanted to follow his interest at the college level, he would need to earn a diploma first. So, he called the Literacy Council of Reading-Berks.

Not Just ESL

"Many members of the community view us as the mom-and-pop shop that just provides English as a second language (or ESL) courses," said Ryan A. Breisch, executive director of the council.

The West-Lawn based council does offer such courses, he said, but it also offers much more.

"We offer what we call high school equivalency classes," he said.

But don't call the course a GED class, Breisch warned. People who take the classes will feel confident taking General Educational Development, or GED, exam or the High School Equivalency Test, or HiSET, he said.  READ MORE @

@ReadingWorks

Fighting illiteracy takes courage

Detroit Free Press: 8.20.2017 by Hilarie Chambers, Executive Director-Reading Works

Every day, adults in our families and workplaces are taking the courageous step to come forward, admit they don’t read well — and do something about it.

They may not read well enough to do the small  things  that many of us take for granted, like reading a prescription or a note from a teacher. And not well enough to do the big things, like filling out a job application or reading an employee manual.

Put yourself in their place. Imagine what it would be like to wake up in the morning and have to communicate with the world in a different language. How could you read your daily instructions at work or write a report for your boss?  You'd have that pit in the bottom of your stomach, and you'd feel inadequate, insecure.  

And if you decide to improve your life, to take the time-consuming steps to learn to do those things big and small, you'd have to do so while maintaining all of your current responsibilities — maybe raising kids, paying the mortgage or the rent, trying to stay afloat financially.  You'd face what could be a long, lonely struggle.

This is where Reading Works and our partner network of adult literacy agencies come in. It's where you come in, too. It's important that we collectively signal to these courageous people that they are not alone.  READ MORE @

Reading the Past, Writing the Future: Fifty Years of Promoting Literacy :: UNESCO

Reading the Past,

Writing the Future:

Fifty Years of Promoting Literacy

Reading the Past, Writing the Future: Fifty Years of Promoting Literacy

UNESCO: April 2017

The present publication takes stock of literacy initiatives world-wide over the last five decades and analyses how literacy campaigns, programmes and policies have changed to reflect the evolutions in our conceptual understanding of literacy.

Fifty countries have been selected in this review based on those that achieved strong progress during the Education for All (EFA) period between 2000 and 2015. These countries serve as a symbol of global progress and wider literacy efforts, although many challenges remain. The fifty selected countries are as follows, listed by region:

Infographic

●● Latin America and the Caribbean:

El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Peru, Plurinational State of Bolivia

●● Northern Africa:

Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia

●● Oceania:

Vanuatu

●● South-Eastern Asia:

Lao People’s Democratic Republic,  Timor-Leste

●● Southern Asia:

Bangladesh, India, Islamic Republic of Iran, Nepal, Pakistan

●● Sub-Saharan Africa:

Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cabo Verde, Cameroon, Chad, Comoros, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Mozambique, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Togo, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia

●● Western Asia:

Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar,  Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Yemen

Defining literacy

For governments and organizations like UNESCO that have a mandate to promote opportunities for all to benefit from the use of literacy, two fundamental dilemmas lurk just under the surface.

First, what is meant by literacy? UNESCO has given several definitions, notably in 1958, 1978 and in 2005. The first two definitions focused on the capacity to read and write a simple sentence, whereas by 2005 UNESCO had moved to a broader understanding of literacy, recognizing that the complexity of the phenomenon meant that any definition could not claim to be universal. As a working definition and in the context of assessing literacy, a meeting of experts adopted the following formulation:

Using the term ’literacy’ in other domains

Another perspective on linkages with literacy derives from the extended use of the term ’literacy’.  In addition to its primary connections to communication involving text, the term ’literacy’ is used  by stakeholders in other disciplines to refer to basic knowledge and competences in other domains.  In this sense, literacies are often used as a shorthand for the capacity to access, understand, analyse  or evaluate these areas. Some common areas include:

●● Financial literacy: in OECD surveys,7 this concept has addressed the financial knowledge,  attitudes and behaviour of adults.

●● Legal literacy: a more complex concept that includes the ability to navigate a legal process with understanding, recognize a legal right or responsibility and recognize when problems or conflicts  are of a legal nature.8

●● Medical or health literacy: this indicates how well a person can obtain the health information and services that they need, how well they understand them and how they use them to make good  health decisions.9

●● Media literacy: UNESCO defines this as ’a 21st century approach to education. It provides a framework to access, analyze, evaluate, create and participate with messages in a variety of forms — from print to video to the Internet. Media literacy builds an understanding of the role of media in society as well as essential skills of inquiry and self-expression necessary for citizens of a democracy’ (UNESCO 2016b).10

●● Information literacy: this may be defined as being able to ’empower people in all walks of life to seek, evaluate, use and create information effectively to achieve their personal, social, occupational and educational goals.’11

●● Environmental literacy: the Campaign for Environmental Literacy defines this as ’…the capacity of an individual to act successfully in daily life on a broad understanding of how people and societies relate to each other and to natural systems, and how they might do so sustainably.’12

The extent of this more figurative use of ’literacy’ is illustrated in some less obvious collocations, including emotional literacy, cultural literacy, social literacy… and even kitchen literacy.

Using the term ’literacy’ in this extended way does not sever the links with the basic understanding of the term, but rather builds on it. There is a clear relationship, first in terms of the common element of manipulating knowledge and symbolic systems. More concretely, none of the derived ’literacies’ can be accessed or mastered without some degree of communication involving text. In the pursuit of the SDGs, embedding literacy across the agenda will be essential, meaning that those without basic literacy will have little (or certainly less) chance to acquire competencies in other domains. Moreover, the use of this wider range of basic competencies will be part of achieving all seventeen SDGs as each one will require the learning of new skills and knowledge, as well as the capacity to imagine, analyse and evaluate new solutions. Therefore, promoting literacy – in its central meaning of communication involving text – is fundamental to acquiring other basic competencies as a necessary part of the collective effort to achieve the SDGs.  READ MORE @