Get Connected: LCNV’s Fall 2014 Newsletter
November 3, 2014 at 3:16 PM | Posted in News, Volunteers | Comments Off on Get Connected: LCNV’s Fall 2014 Newsletter
Halt Buzas & Powell Employess support LCNV at Acumen Solutions 6th Annual Race for a Cause: (from left) Nisa Shamsieva, Isabel Gastulo, Resat Mursaloglu, Michelle Hall-Norvell (LCNV staff), Marco Fernandez, Kristin Siebeneicher, Carol Mount, Thuy Nguyen and Tamer Abofreka
LCNV’s Literacy Lines│Fall 2014 Newsletter is online now!
Prefer to receive by email? Sign up here.
PDF version
In the pdf version, some articles may be abridged or omitted due to space limitations.
In this issue:
- Director’s Letter Fall 2014
- Thanks for Supporting LCNV at Acumen Solutions’ 2014 Race for a Cause!
- Volunteer Corner: Fall 2014 Update
- Tutor’s Corner: What’s Happening in Tutoring?
- Classroom Corner: Welcome 2014-2015 AmeriCorps Classroom Instructors!
- Donor Spotlight: Capital One Financial Corporation
- Volunteer Opportunities:
- Spread holiday cheer through one of LCNV’s gift wrapping events at local Barnes & Noble stores! Volunteers are needed to wrap customer purchases, talk about LCNV, and encourage donations. Participating locations are Potomac Yard, Seven Corners, and Tysons Corner. Each gift wrap shift generally lasts three to four hours. Dates begin as early as December 13 and go through December 24.
- The Student Special Fall 2014 (PDF): great resource for tutors and teachers, a LCNV produced reader for students
- Upcoming Events:
- Volunteer Orientation on Nov. 17 from 6:30-8:00 p.m.
- LCNV Annual Holiday Potluck Party on Dec. 5 from 6-8 p.m.
- More Ways to Support LCNV Learners: Get a jump start on your holiday giving and shop LCNV’s Amazon.com wishlist. Purchase through the AmazonSmile Foundation site and a small percentage of all eligible purchase will benefit the charity of your choice, LCNV, all through the year. Find out more details about AmazonSmile.
- Bonus News: LCNV Volunteer Shares How Her RSVP-NoVA Membership Also Benefits LCNV
- Please sign up for the LCNV Constant Contact mailing list to ensure you continue to receive the newsletter and other LCNV updates electronically.
Transurban-Fluor 495 Express Lanes Grant Awarded to LCNV!
August 28, 2013 at 4:26 PM | Posted in Family Learning, News | Comments Off on Transurban-Fluor 495 Express Lanes Grant Awarded to LCNV!Tags: Family Learning, literacy council

Students practice reading and writing exercises to improve their English skills in the Family Learning Program classes at Crestwood Elementary School.
The Transurban-Fluor 495 Express Lanes Grant Program chose to support #LCNV’s Family Learning Program because of its dedication to enriching the lives of members of the community. Read their great profile of LCNV’s work. http://bit.ly/14WjEMk
New Fall Classroom Schedules!
August 8, 2011 at 4:43 PM | Posted in Calendar, Class, Community, Community Partners, ESOL, Family Learning, Media, News, Teaching, Testing, Volunteers | Comments Off on New Fall Classroom Schedules!Tags: Basic Adult Literacy, community, Family Learning, networking, Registration, students, suggestions, Volunteer, volunteers
The weather’s starting to change, that means it’s time to get back in the classroom!
I’m happy to report we have confirmed class times and locations with all our classroom community partners and the new schedules are ready for the ESOL Learning Centers and Family Learning Program. Click the Google Map below to see our classroom locations or where neighboring English Language services are:
Registration will be September 14th through 22nd and we’ll be advertising in the walk-able areas immediately around each class site but we encourage you to help our advertising campaign. How can you help? Ask your neighborhood grocer, library, community center or place of worship if you can post a copy of our schedule on their community news or bulletin space. You can find a link to each schedule here:
ESOLC_Master Schedule_Fall 2011
Conversation Classes_Fall 2011
Thank you for all your support!
–Erin Finn, Director of Classroom Programs
An Exciting Transition
May 9, 2011 at 11:36 AM | Posted in Class, ESOL, Family Learning, News, Staff, Teaching | Comments Off on An Exciting TransitionTags: Learning Centers, New Staff
As Learning Centers started to bring its spring term to a close and Family Learning classes went on a Spring Break, I was getting ready for a new transition in my life. Last week I started my new job at the office as an ESOL Learning Centers Specialist, resigning from my lead teacher position with the Council.
For me, it has always been hard to say “goodbye” to students at the end of sessions. But generally you know you will be there next time teaching again. This one was the hardest of all: I knew I wouldn’t be teaching four nights a week anymore. As we said our goodbyes, I asked my students to continue taking classes and practicing their English daily, and I promised to do my best to help developing programs that address and meet our students’ needs. I also knew that I will never forget what my students have taught me over these years.
As I spent my first week learning about my new job, I had great time among very enthusiastic, energetic and dedicated group of people working together to develop and support best educational programs to serve thousands of adults in the area. I have been very excited and proud to join the staff here at the Council.
-Serife Turkol, ESOL Learning Centers Specialist
Secure Communities
October 7, 2010 at 11:52 PM | Posted in Community, News | Comments Off on Secure CommunitiesTags: community
A couple of weeks ago, I was listening to NPR when a short piece about ICE’s Secure Communities Program aired. If you’re like me, you’ve heard talk of this federally mandated program, but can’t articulate precisely what it is. So like any other 24 year old in this day and age, I searched Wikipedia. This is the brief description I found:
“In 2007, the program Secure Communities was created within ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency) to “identify” criminal aliens, “prioritize” them based on the severity of the crime they committed, and “transform” the processes necessary to remove them by increasing efficiency. Secure Communities identifies illegal immigrants with the use of modern technology, notably biometric identification techniques. When an individual is brought to jail, his or her fingerprints are checked for matches in federal immigration databases and criminal databases. If a match is found, ICE places a detainer on the individual, which is a request that the jail holds that person for up to 48 hours beyond their scheduled release, so that ICE can come to interview or possibly take custody of them.”
Although seemingly benign, the mandate has roused county boards across the country, including Arlington County. Here’s why.
The Secure Communities Program links two databases – the FBI’s and ICE’s – to more efficiently process any individual that has been arrested by local law enforcements. But herein lies the catch: any individual, whether criminal or not, would be fingerprinted if they are taken to jail. If there is any question whether the individual is an unauthorized immigrant, ICE can have the local law enforcement detain the individual until ICE arrives. Ultimately, this could lead to communities being less safe, racial profiling, and dubious relations between local law enforcement s and immigrant communities.
On September 28th, the Arlington County Board approved a resolution stating its intent to withdraw Arlington County from the Secure Communities Program. The County Board explicitly stated that the Arlington County Police Department’s responsibility is to keep the community safe, not enforce federal immigration laws. After a couple of days in limbo, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released the final word: no county is able to withdraw from the program. The Washington Post states:
The only way a local jurisdiction could opt out of the program is if a state refused to send fingerprints to the FBI. Since police and prosecutors need to know the criminal histories of people they arrest, it is not realistic for states to withhold fingerprints from the FBI – which means it is impossible to withhold them from ICE.
In fact, DHS is under a Congressional mandate instated during the Bush administration to verify fingerprints collected from every jurisdiction in the nation with the ICE database by 2013. The Arlington County officials have gone to great lengths to make it clear that they don’t support the Secure Communities Program mandate even though it is required by federal law to comply.
If you’re interested in reading a more comprehensive explanation about the Secure Communities Program, I recommend this article from The Washington Post or the Arlington County webpage.
-Minta Trivette, interim Family Learning Program Specialist
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 | Comments Off on Shining a Light on Virginia’s Adult Literacy Crisis (via Facts and Statistics for Adult Education and Literacy in Virginia)Just found this great blog today! We encourage you to follow its articles!
via Facts and Statistics for Adult Education and Literacy in Virginia
National Book Scholarship
August 25, 2010 at 2:48 PM | Posted in Basic Literacy, Community Partners, Donors, News | Comments Off on National Book ScholarshipThe Council recently received a National Book Scholarship award from ProLiteracy, the largest adult literacy organization in the United States. This award provided the Council with almost $2,000 worth of books from ProLiteracy’s publication division, New Readers Press. Those of us connected with the Council’s tutoring programs were especially delighted with the award, since New Readers Press publishes many of the text series used with our learners. Thanks to the award, we were able to add additional copies of the student books and teachers’ manuals to the library. Tutors often like to try several different texts with their students before deciding which one would be best to use. Now they are less likely to be disappointed by finding that all the copies have been checked out.
Many of our learners are interested in obtaining their citizenship, and New Readers Press publishes an excellent series, entitled Citizenship: Passing the Test, which is designed to help students prepare for the interview. The materials are always in high demand by our tutors. The National Book Scholarship award enabled us to obtain additional copies of these books and accompanying audio CDs for the library. In addition, it provided us with additional copies of the series’ literacy skills workbook. Instead of being added to our library, these copies of the workbook will be distributed to tutors who are helping learners with especially low literacy skills prepare for the exam.
–Elise Bruml, Tutoring Programs Director
Blog at WordPress.com.
Entries and comments feeds.