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Literacy: Spanning North America

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Provincial Funding Will Help New Ridge Meadows Adult Literacy Program Get Off The Ground

Maple Ridge News: 9.12.2019 by Colleen Flanagan

A new tutoring program aimed at adults needing to upgrade their literacy skills in the community will get a good start thanks to thousands of dollars in funding from the province.

The Maple Ridge Pitt Meadows Katzie Literacy Committee will be getting $24,000 in government funding per year for the next two years.

Janice Williams, the new Community Adult Literacy program coordinator, said a good chunk of that money will be used to put together the new Adult Literacy Tutoring Program in order to get it off the ground.

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Williams says that according to Statistics Canada’s International Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey, more than 40 per cent of Canadian adults have low literacy. The survey was a large-scale co-operative effort undertaken in 2003, 2006 and 2008 by governments, national statistics agencies, research institutions and multi-lateral agencies that built on the International Adult Literacy Survey, the world’s first internationally comparative survey of adult skills undertaken in three rounds of data collection between 1994 and 1998.  READ MORE >>

@LCFC3

Literacy And Learning English Unlocks Opportunity

Frederick NewsPost: 9.12.2019

Ivan Díaz, 39, moved with his family from Venezuela to the United States six years ago. He says, “The U.S. is an amazing country! This is a real country for opportunity, for changing your life. I am an example of that.”

In the U.S., Díaz says, he is free to express his ideas and opinions. He was able to do so in English for an interview because of his Literacy Council volunteer tutor, Michael Cohen. When he came to the U.S., Díaz could read English but could not speak it intelligibly. He and Cohen have worked together for several years on Díaz’s English vocabulary and pronunciation. Their relationship goes beyond that of tutor and student; Cohen says, “He’s like my son.”

Díaz was a journalist and radio talk show host in his native city of Maracaibo, Venezuela; he had acted in national theater productions and a couple of movies. In Maryland, he had trouble finding work because in job interviews he couldn’t make himself understood. When he began waiting tables in a Mexican restaurant, his employers quickly recognized his talents and saw that he would make a great manager of their company – but his English had to improve. Asked what the Literacy Council has done for him, Díaz says, “I can be the manager of the restaurant because of the Literacy Council. Right now, I can speak to you because of the Literacy Council.”  READ MORE >>

@SPLBuzz

Incarcerated Parents Can Read Books To Their Kids Through New Library Program

Seattle PI: 9.12.2019 by Becca Savransky

Incarcerated parents are often just looking for ways to be positive influences in their children's lives, said Deborah Sandler and Lauren Mayer, two children's services librarians with The Seattle Public Library. Parents are looking to overcome many barriers they may face as their kids grow up while they're not there.

Sandler and Mayer are hoping to help incarcerated parents connect with their children through a new joint program, called "Read to Me!" between The Seattle Public Library, the King County Department of Public Defense and the King County Correctional Facility. The program, which started earlier this year, gives incarcerated parents the chance to create a video of themselves reading a book out loud to be sent to their children to watch and keep.

Parents can participate if they have kids ages 7 or younger. It's another opportunity to communicate with their children when they're not able to see them or talk to them in person. Mayer and Sandler said they hope the program serves as a reminder to children of how much their parents love and care about them.  READ MORE >>