Literacy – Spanning the US :: State College PA :: Birmingham AL :: Hartford CT :: Kansas City MO

Literacy: Spanning the U.S.     

@MSLCLiteracy

United Way, Mid-State Literacy Council Create ‘Happier, Healthier Lives’

PSU: 1.21.2019

Imagine not being able to read your child a bedtime story.

Imagine visiting your child’s school for a parent-teacher conference and not being able to converse with the teacher.

Imagine going to the doctor and not being able to communicate what’s wrong with your body.

@CC_UnitedWay

These are the kinds of challenges that the Mid-State Literacy Council (MSLC) are empowering Centre County community members to overcome through the support of the Centre County United Way, and the support of Penn State’s United Way campaign.

Literacy for lifelong success

When Xuhui Liu first moved to the area with her family a year and a half ago, the transition to life in a new country seemed daunting. Learning to speak English posed an especially big challenge, one that kept her from doing all the things she wanted to do as a mother.

Now, thanks to classes and lessons at the Mid-State Literacy Council, she’s able to read her daughter to sleep every night. “Tom Thumb” and “Red Riding Hood” are two of her daughter’s favorites, and seeing that light in her daughter’s eyes when they read together makes it all worthwhile.

“The language is very, very important for me, for all the international families. They gave me the chance to learn,” Liu said. “Before, when I needed to take my daughter to see the dentist, I needed the translation service. Now I don’t. This has been very useful — it’s important.”  READ MORE >>

@literacy_update

Churches, Schools Offer Free English Classes in Shelby County

280 Living: 1.22.2019 by Alyx Chandler

Literacy, Katrina Watson said, underlies everything that exists.

People can have any number of reasons for not being fluent readers and writers, but not being able to read and write can inhibit an individual from living their lives to the fullest. It can present communication challenges that are only fixed by increasing literacy.

When the Literacy Council of Central Alabama first opened in 1991, it identified Shelby County as an area of interest, said Watson, the group’s president and executive director.

They provided support to the area by sharing literacy classes and initiatives, and in 2012, they added their English for Other Speakers (ESOL) program. Watson said in the first couple months of 2019, they will be bringing their first workplace literacy program into a company in Shelby County. She hopes many more companies will follow.

“This falls into professional development, like writing at work, reading at work,” Watson said. “Perhaps their supervisor notices they are having trouble writing a report or fully understanding the manual.”

The program will spend time helping employees improve, both one-on-one and in groups. Research shows improving literacy can have a huge impact on productivity in the workplace, Watson said.  READ MORE >>

@LitVolHartford

Learning English: Five Adult Students, In Their Own Words

Courant: 1.22.2019 by Mary Anne Chute Lynch

Coming from about 20 towns in Greater Hartford or from Togo or Brazil or any of about 80 other countries, adult students climb the stairwells at 30 Arbor St. in Hartford with a common need and determination — to learn the irascible English language and improve their lives.

“We’re here to meet the student wherever the student is," says Carol “CJ” DeVido Hauss, executive director of Literacy Volunteers of Greater Hartford. "It’s a scary thing to walk through these doors. Some people have failed a lot in their lives before they come here. They need to learn they can succeed.”

Two-thirds of the 900 students take classes in English for Speakers of Other Languages. The rest are native English speakers who may have a high school diploma but read and write at or below a sixth-grade reading level. If a student needs to get a job while studying English, “We’ll help” with that, too, Hauss says.

Classes, taught by more than 200 volunteers trained at the center, cover reading, writing, English proficiency, math, high school completion, citizenship and job readiness skills. Started in 1972, the nonprofit is funded by United Way, private grants and individual giving.

It empowers anyone from high school dropouts to doctoral candidates not to be “scared” of the English language. Here are the stories of several students, in their own words:  READ MORE >>

@EveryLibrary

Micah Reads! This Inspiring Story Proves That Libraries are Extremely Important

EveryLibrary: 8.02.2018 by Steven Bellah

The guy holding the shirt is Micah. He has been coming to the Red Bridge Branch of the Mid-Continent Library for about a year and a half now. He walks about a half mile to get there. In the beginning, he would come in and check out about 10 DVD’s, multiple days a week. He told us he lived in a group home and the movies kept him entertained. He was just another satisfied customer.

@MCPLMO

Then, and I don’t know when or to who, he revealed to us that he couldn’t read. Even simple children’s books were too difficult for him. That is when my staff shined their brightest, and showed how purposeful and helpful they were.

Several members of my staff started to take the time to sit and read a book with Micah almost every time he visited. It eventually became a regular occurrence.

They were usually Level 1 or Level 2 children’s books. About 15 minutes each time, line by line, page by page, helping him sound out words and building trust and dedication. Soon, Micah was coming in every day, reading a book with us, improving his literacy skills, and finding the library a welcoming place.  READ MORE  >>