Literacy: Spanning the U.S.
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Weekly
Classes At The Library Prepare Boulderites For Citizenship
Boulder Weekly: 7.19.2018 by Angela K. Evans
On
any given Monday, about a dozen people gather around a conference table on the
second floor of the Boulder Public Library. There are people
from Mexico, Argentina, South Korea, Tibet, Eastern Europe, Nepal and Ethiopia.
All have a different story to tell, but all are studying to become U.S.
citizens.
For
the last 14 years, Anita Stuehler has been teaching free citizenship classes at
the library, not a requirement for naturalization, but a helpful tool for
people at any stage in the process.
“[The
classes] are to help people go in for their interview more confident and more
sure of what’s going on,” Stuehler says. “You can have someone come in here
with a PhD from Canada and speaks perfect English, or you can have someone who
has escaped from Tibet and can’t even write their own name. And it’s usually
somewhere in between.”
Since
2012, there has been a 35-percent increase in the number of citizenship
applications, according to U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services (USCIS), but
the number of individuals naturalized has remained roughly the same, with
700,000-750,000 people becoming citizens each year. Last year, more than 6,300
people were naturalized in Colorado and Wyoming. The year before it was almost
9,000, and in 2015, more than 9,500 people in the two states became citizens. READ MORE >>
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New
Mexico Coalition For Literacy Advances Adult Learning
KSFR:
7.20.2018 by Ellen Lockyer
It's
a fact: an estimated 46% of adult New Mexicans are functionally
illiterate. That's sad news, but the New Mexico Coalition for Literacy is doing
its best to provide programs in every county for those adults who need help
with reading skills. KSFR speaks with Coalition executive director Heather
Heunermund and outreach coordinator Ellen Gallegos about why so many New
Mexicans need literacy help. LISTEN
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YMCA
RISE program helps immigrant moms in Winston-Salem
FOX 8:
7.20.2018 by Natalie Wilson
Right
now, dozens of women are gaining a new sense of independence.
Many
of them are stay-at-home moms who are adjusting to life in America.
The
Robinhood Road Family YMCA is teaching
them English and how to turn interests into income.
“Most
of the funding for adult literacy programs throughout the whole country is
based on jobs and helping people get jobs, but because a lot of our women don't
have transportation access and they need to take care of their children, we
were looking for part-time opportunities so that they could start their own
businesses and make money at home,” said Julie Tomberlin, program director of
the adult literacy program at the Robinhood Road YMCA.
That’s
how RISE - Refugee and Immigrant Society of Entrepreneurs – started. It’s a sub-program
of the adult literacy initiative.
It
started in 2017 with about 30 women currently participating. WATCH
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Ionia
County Literacy Council Promotes Digital Literacy
Daily News:
7.18.2018 by Elisabeth Waldon
An
Ionia County woman lost her job as a receptionist and began searching for new
work.
However,
she soon realized most relevant job postings required the use of Microsoft Word
and Excel. Not only was this woman not familiar with these programs, she didn’t
even have an email account to use to send in her resume.
Janet
Balice recounted this story to the Ionia County Board of Commissioners on
Tuesday as an example of one of the many people the Ionia County Literacy Council is trying to
help.
The
Literacy Council is in the process of connecting the former receptionist to
someone who can help her not only create an email account but also learn more
about the necessary digital skills needed to find a job.
The
Literacy Council has identified digital literacy as a local need in the Ionia
County community, along with the ever-present need for basic literacy and math
skills. Michigan Works helps with these efforts by making its bank of computers
available, and local libraries have also proved invaluable in helping adult students. READ MORE >>
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