Literacy – Spanning the US :: St Paul MN :: Urbana IL :: Chicago IL :: Birmingham AL

Literacy: Spanning the US       

@NorthstarDigLit

MN Nonprofit Promotes Digital Literacy, Helps Job Seekers

KARE11: 3.26.2019 by Heidi Wigdahl

After Dale Lande bought a smart phone and tablet, his first question was, "What am I going to do with these?"

To help him answer that question, Lande joined the Minnesota Literacy Council's Northstar Digital Literacy Assessment program.

@mnliteracy

The first step for Lande was testing his knowledge of computer skills through the Northstar assessments.

Eric Nesheim, executive director of the Minnesota Literacy Council, said many years ago the library system asked them to develop a way to determine people's digital literacy.

"Literacy has become more complicated in recent years. Years ago, literacy was... if you could write your name, you were literate. Now days, it involves digital literacy. It involves... becoming literate to get jobs and to move on to higher education," Nesheim said.  WATCH 03:24

@UCIMC

Support Illinois Literacy With Books To Prisoners

Prospectus News: 3.28.2019 by Ayla McDonald

The Independent Media Center (IMC) located at 202 South Broadway Avenue in downtown Urbana will host a semi-annual book sale for the local volunteer-run project Urbana Champaign Books To Prisoners.

@B2Prisoners

According to the website, “UC Books to Prisoners is an Urbana, Illinois based project providing books to Illinois inmates at no cost by mail as well as through two county jail libraries which we operate. We are a community-powered volunteer organization…Our volunteers interact with inmates by reading their letters, selecting books from our collection of donated materials and sending books to inmates in response to their requests.”

Rachel Rasmussen, the Books To Prisoners Volunteer Coordinator, told the Prospectus that the Project was started in 2004 by a University of Illinois student.  “The story is he got a shoebox of letters from incarcerated people asking for books and that he began to answer them,” Rasmussen said. “And then very shortly [after] there was a fuller more robust, more organized non-profit organization at the IMC…We are the largest supplier of books inside prisons in the state of Illinois, and partly that’s because the State has had no funding to buy books.”

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Rasmussen spoke to the power of Books To Prisoners as an educational force for incarcerated people, representing a link to their futures in the outside world. “Education is the most cost effective and the most successful intervention in recidivism,” Rasmussen said. “So, education, morale and hope and courage, the fact that somebody remembered them, that there are people who come and do this for them amazes them.  READ MORE >>

@ChiCityLiteracy

The Chicago Citywide Literacy Coalition Works To Increase Literacy For Those Who Need It Most

WGN: 3.29.2019 with Steve Cochran

Becky Raymond is working to increase literacy for those who need it most.  The Chicago Citywide Literacy Coalition (CCLC) tackles the adult education gap.  LISTEN 07:59

@literacy_update

Birmingham Nonprofit Advances In Competition, Receives National Funding

Birmingham Business Journal: 4.03.2019 by Stephanie Rebman

National funding with statewide implications is coming to a Birmingham nonprofit thanks to a competition.

The Literacy Council of Central Alabama has received a $20,833 Adult Literacy XPRIZE, funded by the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy and the Dollar General Literacy Foundation. The allocation is an equal share of $500,000 in funding among 24 nonprofits from the Adult Literacy XPRIZE Communities Competition.

Missy Burchart, vice president of communications and development for the council, said an additional $100,000 could potentially come down the pipeline as the nonprofit advances in competition with an app.

Funding is part of a two-stage competition to develop and deploy mobile learning technologies to improve the literacy skills of adult learners. In Stage 1, teams from around the world developed literacy apps designed for adults reading at or below the equivalent of a third-grade level. Four learning apps were chosen last month leading up to the Literacy Council's part of the competition. In Stage 2, two apps are being used locally to help with learning.

"The Literacy Council is one of 24 groups – the only agency in the state of Alabama – awarded a grant as part of Stage 2, Communities Competition," Burchart said.  READ MORE >>