Literacy In The News ::
Spanning the US
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Berkshire Edge: 4.28.2021 by Amanda Giracca
The Literacy
Network of South Berkshire (LitNet) recently announced that
Guadalupe Miranda, Claudia Villamil, Viviana Moreno, and Carolina Escobar are
the recipients of the Diane Laurin Memorial Fund Scholarship, a grant for
LitNet learners established to honor the memory of LitNet Board member and
colleague Diane Laurin, who passed away suddenly in 2009. LitNet’s volunteer tutors
were asked to nominate learners who fit the scholarship descriptor: learners
who demonstrate commitment to their learning goals, to improving their
financial stability, and to gaining independence, and who will use the fund to
further their educational and civic goals. The $150 award is to be used as the
recipient sees fit.
“It was such a pleasure to read the nomination letters from tutors and to then hear the sense of gratitude and inspiration from the learner recipients upon receiving these unexpected funds,” said LitNet Executive Director Leigh Doherty. “My guess is Diane Laurin herself would feel very proud to be able to acknowledge such committed people who are on the road to transforming their lives.”
Diane Laurin was the publisher of Laurin
Publishing in Pittsfield and throughout her life was involved with several area
nonprofits, educational programs, and cultural venues, and was serving on the
board of LitNet at the time of her death.
READ
MORE ➤➤
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The adult illiteracy rate in the United
States is 21% according to the National
Center for Education Statistics.
Literacy for Adults in Brevard (LAB) is a local nonprofit staffed by
volunteers from around the county who work with adult residents on literacy
composition. LAB started in 1971 and the organization will be celebrating its
50th anniversary in October.
“It actually got started in Titusville by a
group of Methodist women who wanted to help the migrants,” said Vicky Dunn,
volunteer and vice-president of LAB.
For the past five decades the organization
has helped residents qualify for jobs, work towards citizenship requirements
and improve the quality of their reading and writing skills.
“We’ve been up and down and all around with
how many volunteers we’ve had and of course COVID has had an impact on us,” she
said. “We were pretty quiet during 2020. We couldn’t meet in the libraries
which is our primary space to see our students, but we’re coming back to life
now. A lot of our volunteers have already had their vaccine and we’re reaching out
to our students that we’ve had to see if they are ready to start up again.” READ MORE ➤➤
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Generocity: 4.29.2021 by Grace Shallow
Access to a college education changed Enrico
Crispo’s life about 25 years ago.
“I went to a public high school in a
blue-collar town in North Jersey, and I was lucky to get an athletic
scholarship to go to a good college and get a good education,” Crispo said.
“For me, education opened a lot more doors.”
Crispo now serves as the board president of Beyond Literacy, the product of a merger between two
long-standing Philadelphia organizations—the Community Learning Center and the
Center for Literacy. He credits the The Nonprofit Repositioning Fund and
William Penn Foundation for providing critical support and funding to aid the
merger and its strategic planning activities.
Beyond Literacy (BeLit) will focus on
expanding opportunities for adults through education and workforce readiness.
Education gaps are a prevalent issue in Philadelphia. According to an interactive mapping tool by the National Center for Education Statistics, 32 percent of Philadelphians lack basic literacy and 49 percent lack basic math skills. These numbers have serious implications; a report by the Philadelphia Workforce Investment Board linked low levels of literacy with poverty, poor health and the likelihood of incarceration. The same report noted adult education as a powerful driver of the local economy. READ MORE ➤➤
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