Literacy – Spanning the US :: Newport Beach CA :: Quincy MA :: Midland TX

Literacy: Spanning the US

@NMProLiteracy

Meet Cherall Weiss, Literacy Coordinator

Stu News Newport: 9.13.2019 by Amy Senk

Each year, Newport Beach celebrates Literacy Day with a party that honors its learners and celebrates their native cultures with a potluck feast, speeches, awards and more at an event held at the Central Library. (This year’s event will take place September 12.) But literacy in Newport Beach is a year-round concern, and since 1986, Newport/Mesa ProLiteracy has offered free tutoring to adults who live or work in the Newport Beach area. I caught up with Newport/Mesa ProLiteracy’s Literacy Coordinator Cherall Weiss to find out more.

Q: Newport/Mesa ProLiteracy began in 1986 and offers free tutoring, one-on-one and in small classes. Can you share more information about the history and organization of the program?

A: The program started in the home of Carol Hazelwood, a local woman with a good heart and passion for literacy. Carol struggled to keep the program alive, but in 1988 she heard about a literacy grant from the state and applied for it with the support of the Newport Beach library director. After winning the grant, the program was relaunched and gradually gained traction. From this shaky beginning, we have continued to grow and currently work with around 200 learners each year.

Q: How many learners have come through the program over the years, and can you tell me about a specific learner’s story that was inspirational to you?

A: We don’t have early records, so the total numbers of people that have come through the program are hard to calculate. As mentioned before, for the past five years or so, we have been seeing approximately 200 people per year.  READ MORE >>

@LVMQuincy

A GOOD AGE: Learning To Read Opens A New World At 77

Marshfield Wicked Local: 9.16.2019 by Sue Scheible, The Patriot Ledger

For seven decades, Michael Salvaggi of Hanson used his wits to make his way successfully through life without knowing how to read. He worked as a rigger at the Fore River Shipyard for 34 years and then for a Braintree home-building company. He married and supported his family. He drove, shopped and ordered items online by memorizing what different signs and symbols meant.

Beneath the surface, his inability to read troubled him. He joined an adult literacy program in Marshfield, where he then lived, but it was discontinued before he advanced very far.

Then in his early 70s, he learned that the Thomas Crane Public Library in Quincy also had a long-established literacy program and decided his moment had arrived. His first wife, Roberta, had died: She had done the couple’s financial paperwork, and although he had learned enough to write checks, he wanted more.

This time he was unstoppable.

“He came to us and said that, now he was retired, he had the time and could put all his energies into what he’d always wanted to do,” said Mary Diggle of Dorchester, the literacy project manager at the Thomas Crane Public Library in Quincy. “He showed trust and courage because he was a zero reader — he could not read at all — and he was vulnerable.”  WATCH 01:36

Permian Basin 

Adult Literacy Center

Literacy Council To Start Classes In Odessa

OA: 9.16.2019

Permian Basin Adult Literacy Center will be offering classes for English language learners in starting Wednesday at Odessa Bible Church, 3901 Penbrook St.

Executive Director Alba Austin said the nonprofit organization was previously called Midland Need to Read, but changed its name in March to better reflect the all the services it provides and the service area it serves.

“We are wanting to expand into offer classes into some other across the Permian Basin,” Austin said.

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“Literacy is an issue that I think the community and the Permian Basin really needs to take a good look at because it does affect the community that you live in. We’ve had companies that have told us that their truck drivers do not speak English — more than 50 percent of them do not speak English. And that becomes a safety issue in your community if you have big truck drivers that do not know how to read simple truck signs, or do not know how to read a driver’s manual or anything like that,” Austin said.

Last year, Permian Basin Adult Literacy Center served about 190 students. Austin said the latest number is more than 230 students.  READ MORE >>