Shining a Light on Virginia’s Adult Literacy Crisis (via Facts and Statistics for Adult Education and Literacy in Virginia)
September 24, 2010 at 1:43 PM | Posted in Advocacy, Community, News, Teaching, Testing, Training, Tutoring, Volunteers | Leave a commentJust found this great blog today! We encourage you to follow its articles!
via Facts and Statistics for Adult Education and Literacy in Virginia
Welcome to Shelbyville
September 24, 2010 at 10:57 AM | Posted in Advocacy, Community, Film, Media, Student Stories | Leave a commentTags: networking, presentation, professional development
On September 15th, I went to an early screening of the film documentary “Welcome to Shelbyville” at the Brookings Institution, hosted by the Migration Policy Institute (MPI). The documentary is the tale of a small town in Tennessee grappling with growing pains as their community becomes more and more diverse. When the film is released on PBS in the spring of 2011, I highly recommend watching it.
I find that living in the already widely diverse metropolitan DC area, it is easy to forget that immigrants are a new occurrence for many smaller communities throughout the United States. As I watched the film, I couldn’t help feeling empathy for the new immigrants in Shelbyville and I wished there was more I could do to make them feel welcome. There were several scenes in the film that took place in adult ESOL classrooms and it reminded me very much of the classes offered here at the Literacy Council of Northern Virginia and it got me thinking …
While our classes start up this week and next, what do you do to make our students feel welcome? How do you showcase diversity as a positive feature in our communities? Please share your thoughts in the comments field below.
-Erin Finn, Director of Classrom Programs
Friends of Friends
August 20, 2010 at 3:04 PM | Posted in Advocacy, Announcements, Community Partners, News, Volunteers | Leave a commentThe mother of one of my friend’s is one of those magical connective people who will remember exactly where you left off in your last conversation and probably line you up with the job and/or man of your dreams during the course of an afternoon barbecue. Fabia is a beautiful example of the power of human relationships and the community they create. When we care about someone or something, we are willing to share what we have beit other relationships, money, education, food, knowledge, etc. When we opened Connections for Hope, it sought to create that sort of community.
Sarah Newman, is our own Queen Bee, she brought together the resources of several area organizations for Connections for Hope. Last Tuesday, staff from each of the partners at Connections for Hope came together to reflect, share, and celebrate the 6 months we’ve been open to the public and creating community. Together, over lunch, we took time sharing the progress of our programs and how we might be better at referring clients to one another. The array of services available are amazing from free clinics to world-wide children’s aide, homework help for immigrant children and our classrooms have a home there, too. I sat across some of the volunteers and staff from Jeanie Schmidt Free Clinic. They have doctors who not only volunteer their time, but have specializations detecting war trauma from the many African immigrants adults who use their services. They also hired a new counselor who is working to fill the need for mental health issues. Here at the Literacy Council, we’re working to address the more specialized unmet needs of our clients as we search for a new hire with a specialty in Learning Disabilities to especially help our Basic Adult Literacy Program. We are really excited and proud to be part of this vision. Hopefully, as time goes on, we’ll be sharing clients, space, and the time and talent of our staff to better serve the Northern Virginia community. I hope you’ll share the mission we’re so committed to with the people you care about, so they might share their time and talent, too.
-Katie Beckman, Program Assistant
Challenge Grant!
February 1, 2010 at 9:00 AM | Posted in Advocacy, Announcements, Community Partners, Development, Donors, ESOL, Family Learning, News, Volunteers | Leave a comment
Hopefully by now you’ve had the chance to check out our website to see the progress we’ve been making on our Challenge Grant. I’m happy to report that we’re 86% of the way there!
The challenge began on July 1, when an anonymous donor pledged a dollar-for-dollar matching grant of $20,000 for all new and increased gifts from individual donors. We were so touched to see the outpouring of support that ensued after we officially announced the challenge. In December alone, LCNV received over $12,000 from supporters like you who sacrificed in other areas of your life in order to increase your gift this year, and many new supporters joined with LCNV for the first time. We cannot thank you enough for your generosity!
The deadline for the challenge grant is not until the end of LCNV’s fiscal year – June 30, 2010 – but the challenge donor was so thrilled with the results so far that the donor already gave LCNV the first half of the pledge payment!
If just a few more people like you increase their yearly giving or make a new gift to LCNV, we can meet our challenge today! Please visit http://www.lcnv.org/donors/donateNow.cfm now. A gift of $50 will support one adult learner through a 10-week class at LCNV. A gift of $100 will help LCNV train two new volunteer tutors and provide them with their first set of teaching materials.
Please be sure to check our website to see when we hit our $20,000 goal!
~Suzie Brindle Eaton, Senior Director of Development
If you have any questions about your past gifts to LCNV, please feel free to contact me at seaton@lcnv.org or 703-237-0866 x 109.
Celebrating New Beginnings
January 4, 2010 at 4:13 PM | Posted in Advocacy, Announcements, Calendar, Community Partners, Development | Leave a comment
We tend to start the New Year with renewed hope and ambition. In the middle of winter in the dark and cold dreary days we need to look forward to something new and exciting; an opportunity to shake things up and make changes. This might be a good time to think about volunteering for the Literacy Council of Northern Virginia. The Council offers a variety of volunteer opportunities that accommodate different skills, schedules and talents. Check out the Literacy Council web-site for an opportunity that might work for you: http://lcnv.org/volunteers/volunteerOpps.cfm
In the same spirit of hope and ambition, the Literacy Council wants to encourage those who need our educational support to come forward to learn. If you know of an adult who struggles with reading, or needs to learn English as a second language, please let them know of our programs and help them realize a new potential. Education opens the door for advancement and opportunity. The joy of reading is a gift to be shared.
Let this be a year when you strengthened your community by helping an adult learner make a choice for education, or through the service of teaching.
- Patti Donnelly, Executive Director
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