Sunday, September 17, 2017

Literacy – Spanning the US :: Wichita Falls TX :: Charlottesville/Albemarle VA :: Bangor ME

Literacy: Spanning the U.S.

Proclamation for 35 years of WALC
Texomas: 8.15.2017 by Gwyn Bevel

The Wichita Falls Mayor read a proclamation to recognize a nonprofit and a force of volunteers behind it, during Tuesday morning's council meeting.

The Wichita Adult Literacy Council is celebrating its 35th anniversary in Wichita Falls and some of its long time members and true supporters were in council chambers for the honor.

WALC pairs students with tutors, they work with on a one-on-one basis, to improve reading and writing skillsREAD MORE @

@LVCA_Wordplay 
Literacy Volunteers of Charlottesville/Albemarle

Describe your nonprofit's mission.
Literacy Volunteers of Charlottesville/Albemarle (LVCA) addresses low literacy and under-education among adults in our region through free, individualized reading, writing and English language instruction. Our mission is to help individuals become better workers, consumers, neighbors, citizens and parents through one-to-one tutoring.

As an independent 501(c)3 offering individualized tutoring, unrestricted donations allow us to be student-centered and serve individuals, no matter their goal. Instruction focuses on specific goals, such as being able to communicate with their children’s teachers, speak to their employers, and become better consumers and workers.

What need in our community brought about the creation of your nonprofit?
In 1983, the director and staff of the Charlottesville Adult Education Center identified a need for an “adult readers program” for the area. They invited community leaders and various service organizations to attend an exploratory meeting. This led to the formation of a small volunteer group.

Census data for Charlottesville and Albemarle has consistently revealed a significant literacy deficit for adult residents of the area, native and non-native. In the most recent census, for example, the number of adults with less than a 9th grade education was 3,935, or 4.2 percent of the population. In 2014, 2,991 adults in Charlottesville and 5,815 adults in Albemarle did not have a high-school diploma. The 2010 census also shows that approximately 1,660 residents of Albemarle County and the City of Charlottesville self-reported that they “do not speak English very well.”  READ MORE @

Bangor literacy tutors helping others overcome the barrier of illiteracy, one life at a time
Bangor Daily News: 8.17.2017 by Meg Haskell

Heather Lambert grew up in Maine’s foster care system, entering state custody when she was two months old and aging out at 18. During that time, she lived in 40 different foster homes and attended 15 different schools the length and breadth of the state. By the time she was on her own, she was already making critically bad choices about drugs, school, alcohol, men and the law, choices that developed into serious substance abuse, landed her in prison and cost her custody of two young daughters.

Given all the instability in her young life, it is unsurprising that Lambert never finished high school. She dropped out in eighth grade, missing out on crucial years of learning, extracurricular opportunities, social maturation and, ultimately, that all-important high-school diploma. There are many life decisions you can’t undo, but now, at 25 — clean, sober and the doting mother of a sweet, six-month-old boy named Ezekiel — Lambert’s looking to get her life on track. And she’s got help doing it.

On a recent Monday morning, Lambert met with her Literacy Volunteers of Bangor tutor, Jen Montgomery-Rice, in the living room of Lambert’s tidy basement apartment at the Shepherd’s Godparent Home, a residential facility in Bangor for pregnant women and young mothers. The two have been meeting regularly for almost a year, ever since Lambert learned she was pregnant and decided to take advantage of the facility’s focus on helping young mothers learn healthy parenting skills, finish high school, develop a career, find long-term housing and stabilize and take control of their lives in other ways.  READ MORE @

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