Literacy – Spanning North America :: San Diego Co CA :: Pointe-Claire QC :: Terrace BC :: Tullahoma TN

Literacy: Spanning North America       

@SDCountyLibrary

Libraries and Learning Upgrade: Accessing Literacy Services Via Libraries & Apps

WS Radio: 10.23.2018

It was a pleasure to have with us, Migell Acosta, Director of the San Diego County Library. Migell spoke about the different ways that libraries provide resources to residents so that they read better, write better, do math better, function better, and live a better quality of life. He shared information about e-books, library-literacy services, and Library High School.

Literacy for All radio show is here to enhance access to information and promising practices that support the national and international literacy network and those they serve.  LISTEN 14:54 & 14:56

@literacyunlimit

Literacy Unlimited Works On Getting The Word Out

Montreal Gazette: 4.09.2019 by Kathryn Greenaway

Struggling with literacy doesn’t always mean being completely illiterate. It can also mean having the skill to read the basics, but hitting a wall when it comes to reading a medication label, lists of ingredients in a grocery store or the latest computer software manual.

Literacy Unlimited in Pointe-Claire has been helping adults improve their literacy skills since 1981. And the service is free.

“We want to get the word out,” Literacy Unlimited executive director Lucy Baum said. “People who are struggling often don’t know where to turn.”

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Baum said referrals from other outreach organizations bring people to the centre, but so do people spreading the word within their own communities.

“Sometimes it can take years before someone decides to walk through our door,” she said. “But once they walk through the door, the impact is spectacular. Imagine the lack of freedom you have when you are struggling to read. From the time you wake up in the morning to the time you go to sleep, you will be expected to read something.”  READ MORE >>

Terrace’s only adult literacy program shuts down

Terrace Standard: 4.11.2019 by Quinn Bender

After more than 20 years teaching adults essential reading and writing skills, the Literacy Terrace Society closed its doors for good March 31.

The society’s executive director Murray George put the blame on the province’s inadequate financial support for literacy programs.

In a letter to volunteer tutors, he explained an increasing number of literacy associations are fighting for smaller and smaller cuts of provincial funding. And this year a 25 per cent reduction in the maximum allowable grant, which for Literacy Terrace meant a drop from $40,000 to $30,000, signalled the end.

“The government’s reasoning was that they have been receiving more requests for funding for literacy programs each year, so rather than provide more funding, they will just reduce the amount each program can receive, apparently to make their ‘pot of money’ go further,” George wrote.  READ MORE >>

Literacy Council

Providing Opportunities Behind Bars

Manchester Times: 4.11.2019 by Casey Watts

The Coffee County Jail offers many programs to reduce recidivism and to give inmates a second chance. Now over two years old, the adult education program in the jail is thriving. The program readies inmates to take the HiSeT test, which is the equivalent of a high school diploma.

Scott Riddle, who is the only adult education teacher in Coffee County, runs the program in the jail.

“The literacy council has been pushing it for years,” Riddle said. “I was told at one time that the average education of the jail was like 9th grade.”

“The Coffee County Jail has been very supportive of the program. Once we got the logistics cleared up, it was boom, hard and going,” Riddle continued.

In 2.5 years, Riddle awarded 75 diplomas. Fifteen of them have been in the past year.

The only limiting factor is time; inmates often leave the jail by bonding out, being transferred or being released before they can finish the course.  READ MORE >>