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Literacy: Spanning North America

@LitCouncil

Author Daniel Wallace Will Keynote Literacy Council Fundraiser

Mountain Express: 10.17.2019 by Doug Gibson

A longtime resident of Chapel Hill, Daniel Wallace (who penned Big Fish: A Novel of Epic Proportions, which director Tim Burton made into a 2003 movie of the same name) was once the assistant director for the literacy council in that city.

“I was in my 20s. It was a fluke, really,” says the author, who now writes and teaches writing at UNC Chapel Hill. “I’d never done anything with literacy, but that was the beginning of my devotion to this effort.”

\On Friday, Oct. 25, Wallace will deliver the keynote address at the Literacy Council of Buncombe County’s 12th annual Authors for Literacy event.

Wallace still hosts the Orange County council’s annual fundraiser, but when he worked for the organization, the job he enjoyed the most was pairing students with volunteer tutors. “That was the icing,” he says. And he compares his work as a teacher of writing to his work with literacy.

“It is much the same job,” he says. “Different people, for whatever reason, whether it’s cultural or economic, are kept from the recognition of, and the realization of, how powerful language can be for us, once we can use it as a tool: sharing the power of words with other people, alerting them to their value. That’s what I do in different stages every day.”

In Buncombe County, according to LuAnn Arena, development director of the local Literacy Council, 1 in 10 adults can’t read at a basic level. “It’s an equity issue,” she says. “If someone can’t read instructions from their doctor or notes from their children’s teachers, they’re just not going to have a good chance of making it.” The effects of illiteracy are stark: 2 out of 5 adults who can’t read or write at a basic level live in poverty, and children of parents with low literacy have almost a 3-in-4 chance of also reading at the lowest literacy level.  READ MORE >>

@GovNL

Province Launches New Program To Improve Adult Literacy

NTV: 10.17.2019 by Beth Penney

Newfoundland and Labrador has some of the lowest adult literacy rates in the country. The provincial government launched a new action plan Thursday.  WATCH 02:00

@Manatee_Reads

Manatee Literacy Council Learner Waits For A Tutor

Herald Tribune: 10.18.2019

Judith Charari is a big fan of the Manatee Literacy Council. She put her daughters into the program after the Chararis left Colombia in 2004 for reasons of family and safety. Judith Charari didn’t have time for English lessons herself back then. She and her husband, Ciro, were raising their daughters and working to pay for their college education.

The Charari children are Manatee Literacy Council success stories. Daughter Sandra, a graphic designer, worked with a Manatee Literacy Council tutor for five years. She graduated from Manatee High School and the University of South Florida and became a U.S. citizen in 2018. Daughter Tania, in the hospitality industry, worked with a Literacy Council tutor for three years. She graduated from Manatee High and USF. Daughter Diana graduated from college in Colombia. She works in the food service industry and meets weekly with her Literacy Council tutor.  READ MORE >>