Community Literacy 1

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From: djrosen@comcast.net
Subject: [SpecialTopics 332] (Updated) Community Literacy Discussion Preparation: Background Reading, Guests, Questions
Date: June 22, 2007 5:16:46 PM EDT

Dear Special Topics Discussion Colleagues,

Our discussion on adult and family community literacy begins Monday, June 25th. We have several guests with a great deal of experience in this area and whose short biographies are below. I have also listed below many of the questions we will ask our guests. I have updated this announcement with additional questions that I have received in the last couple of days. Please add your own questions by sending a message to specialtopics@nifl.gov Additional questions, comments and discussion will be posted beginning on Monday, June 25th, and will continue to be posted through Friday, June 29th

Updated Background Reading

1. Presentations from the National Institute for Literacy Community Literacy Summit held in Washington, D.C. on March 19, 2007 http://www.nifl.gov/nifl/community/communityliteracy.html

2. The Community Partnership for Adult Learning (C-PAL) Web site http://www.c-pal.net , specifically http://www.c-pal.net/profiles/index.html and http://www.c-pal.net/profiles/index.html. The C-PAL Toolbox contains a wide-range of resources that address community-based adult literacy and is available through the Home page, http://www.c-pal.net/index.html. The sections include: creating communities; curriculum and instruction (adult basic education/literacy, high school credential programs, English literacy, family literacy, youth in adult literacy, correctional education, and learning disabilities); professional development; workforce development; technology; program management (it covers topics such as funding and grant writing, program evaluation, recruitment and retention, volunteerism); and more resources. (It includes information on the general state of adult literacy and adult education.)

The Creating Communities Toolbox Section, http://www.c-pal.net/build/communities/index.asp , features “how-to's,” research, journals, and Web sites that address how to build and sustain community partnerships. These resources are also organized by type of partner, e.g., businesses, community organizations, and government. C-PAL’s Building Effective Partnerships Self-Assessment Tool, available at http://www.c-pal.net/assessment/index.html , is an online tool designed to help community organizations evaluate their adult education partnerships. The indicators are drawn from the partnership research and the study of 12 communities. After completing the self-assessment, users receive a profile of their partnerships based upon their responses and are guided to resources that may be useful as they build new or strengthen existing partnerships.

3. Build Literacy Web Site Sponsored by the American Library Association and Verizon, the Web site “features information, materials, and resources about how libraries, local agencies, and corporate partners work together to build stronger community-based literacy partnerships and more literate communities.”

4. Literacy Powerline http://www.literacypowerline.com has planning information in the resources and Literacy FAQ sections that can be downloaded.

Biographies of Guests

Jeff Carter is the Executive Director of D.C. LEARNs, a coalition of over 70 mostly community-based organizations that provide literacy instruction to children, youth, and adults in Washington, D.C. D.C. LEARNs' mission is to lead coalition members in efforts designed to strengthen adult, family and children’s literacy services in the District and present a strong, unified voice on the importance of literacy as an investment in the community. Prior to his appointment to this position, Jeff was the Education Technology Director for the Literacy Division of World Education. Jeff is a member of the Board of Directors of Literacy USA and a member of the District of Columbia Mayor's Adult Literacy Council, which is charged with making adult literacy policy recommendations to the Mayor and City Council.

Kathy Chernus, Director of Adult Education and Literacy for MPR Associates, is the Project Director for the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Vocational and Adult Education’s Community Partnerships for Adult Learning (C-PAL) initiative. Since 2002, C-PAL has been exploring how community partnerships expand and improve education for adults and their families. C-PAL gathers and develops resources for adult educators who want to improve the quality of adult education through partnerships with other providers, employers, government agencies, nonprofits, and workforce development organizations. The C-PAL website, www.c-pal.net, is the primary avenue for sharing these resources. Kathy oversees the research, leads the development of the website, conducts site visits to promising partnerships, develops partnership profiles, disseminates the results, facilitates the work of technical and business advisory groups, and develops new tools and resources. In 2003, the C-PAL staff visited 12 communities around the country to learn how their partnerships have enabled them to better serve adult learners and their families. Profiles of these communities and mini-profiles of six others are available at: http://www.c-pal.net/profiles/index.html. Kathy is the co-author of Commitment Comes in All Shapes and Sizes, a report summarizing the findings from the study of these partnerships. The report is available at http://www.c-pal.net/profiles/index.html. Currently, C-PAL is developing an online guide for businesses interested in becoming more involved in adult education and workforce development.

Margaret Doughty is an international literacy consultant providing literacy coalition development services to cities, regions and states. She works with local government, foundations, business and community organizations to link stakeholder, neighborhoods and services together to increase literacy levels through coordinated service provision and community collaboration.

A native of the United Kingdom, Margaret has been involved in literacy in Africa, the Middle East and the United States, developing coalitions, support service learning organizations, facilitating regional literacy planning, advocating for system change and raising resources. She serves on the board of TAALC (the literacy coalition for Texas), Darla’s School for the Mentally Retarded, and Literacy Advance of Houston and works with national literacy organizations on community literacy issues, most recently presenting to the NIFL board on the need for tracking and accountability for community literacy initiatives to demonstrate both short and long term impact.

Carl Guerriere is the founding Executive Director of the Greater Hartford Literacy Council, a not-for-profit organization that serves as a regional broker and resource to coordinate and enhance literacy efforts in the 35-town Metro Hartford region. By providing information and a means for its more than 100 partner organizations to collaborate, the Literacy Council is a catalyst for action, raising the bar for literacy improvement in the region.

Before establishing the Literacy Council, Carl was program coordinator of Read to Succeed, a reading clinic for adults with reading disabilities. Carl also served as Reading Center Manager for Literacy Volunteers of Greater Hartford, where he moved the program from one-on-one tutoring to small group instruction. Before returning to Hartford in 1995, Carl was Associate Director of the Center for Urban Education at DePaul University in Chicago. Carl has been a teacher and education administrator in New York City; Washington, DC; San Francisco; and Madrid, Spain.

Carl earned a dual Masters Degree in Applied Linguistics and TESOL from Columbia University, Teachers College, an English Teaching Degree from the Escuela Oficial de Idiomas in Madrid, Spain and a Bachelors Degree in Psychology from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut.

Darlene Kostrub serves as the Executive Director of the Palm Beach County Literacy Coalition in Florida. She has been in this position since 1992 and has initiated programs involving adult, children and family literacy. She oversees a Literacy*AmeriCorps project that has fifteen members that tutor in 12 community agencies. She is also the director of the Region V Adult Literacy Center providing marketing and training for literacy in Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade and Monroe Counties. She is the Vice President for the Florida Literacy Coalition and the Vice Chair for the Florida Reach Out and Read Program. As a founding board member and past president of Literacy USA, she has been involved in bringing together literacy coalitions across the country to share best practices in community literacy. The Palm Beach County Literacy Coalition collaborates with over 130 community literacy organizations as well as business and the media.

Petrice Sams-Abiodun (A-bee-o-dun) is the Executive Director for the Lindy Boggs National Center for Community Literacy at Loyola University, where she has an opportunity to combine her research and social justice agendas to address the issue of adult literacy. In her role as the Director she is examining the broader issue of literacy as a vehicle for personal, economic and community empowerment. In an effort to link research with practice she works closely with the Literacy Alliance of Greater New Orleans and other community and faith-based organizations to eradicate low literacy. She is personally committed to using her experience and skills to develop a stronger New Orleans and to this end serves on numerous advisory boards and committees.

Dr. Sams-Abiodun is a former resident of New Orleans public housing and a graduate of New Orleans public schools. She received a Ph.D. in Sociology from Tulane University in 2003. As a social demographer, her goal is to use research for the development and liberation of traditionally marginalized and oppressed people. Her research areas include urban poverty and family issues. Her present research focuses on the role and responsibilities of men as fathers, family and community members. She has been invited to numerous conferences to share her work and is presently working on a book that examines strengths as well as the plight of low income African American men. Her research contributes to a national agenda that is assisting in the rethinking of how we view male attachment in low income families, family structure and formation.

Questions we will Discuss

1. What is Community Literacy?

  • What does community adult and family literacy mean?
  • What are the purposes and goals of community literacy?
  • Why is community literacy important?
  • Typically, who are the key community literacy stake holders?

2. How are Community Literacy Coalitions Developed and Sustained?

  • How do providers approach potential partners (other providers, businesses, social services, local government)?
  • How do local partnerships generate the financial support they need to meet the literacy needs of their communities?
  • What resources are needed for effective community literacy collaboration?
  • How do providers sustain partnerships over the long haul?
  • How do community-based literacy efforts survive transitions in leadership?
  • What are some good examples of community literacy coalitions?
  • What are some incentives and strategies for strengthening community literacy?
  • How do community literacy coalitions or partnerships assure the quality of instruction? Is this an issue? If so, what are some ways quality gets addressed?
  • Are there performance measures for community literacy? If so what are they?
  • How can we learn from the experiences of other countries, particularly those that have built successful literacy movements?
  • What steps can we take to ensure that adult learners and other residents in the learners' communities are providing leadership to community literacy initiatives?

3. How can we measure community literacy outcomes and impact?

  • How can we measure the health, outcomes and impact of community literacy?
  • How do communities document the positive impact they’re having on adult education and family literacy, and workforce and economic development? What data do they collect and how do they use them to show their success?
  • How do providers demonstrate to prospective or current business partners the return-on-investment businesses want to see as a result of their involvement in adult education?
  • How can we measure the effect of community literacy on a community?
  • What do we mean by accountability to learners and their communities and how can we build this accountability into community literacy work?
  • Given the increasing pressure to demonstrate outcomes, how do we convince funders to support intermediary organizations that foster collaborations to address community literacy?
  • What do we know about community literacy from research?

4. What is the relationship of community literacy to workforce literacy, workforce development, “healthy communities” initiatives and transition to higher education?

5. What is the role of technology in community literacy?

6. How can literacy organizations work together to make literacy a top community priority?

7. What sort of training will best prepare community literacy coalitions to address community power dynamics, e.g. issues of racism, ethnocentrism?

David J. Rosen
djrosen@comcast.net

From: djrosen@comcast.net
Subject: [SpecialTopics 333] Community Literacy Discussion Begins
Date: June 24, 2007 7:29:30 PM EDT

Dear Community Literacy Discussion Colleague,

On Monday we begin a discussion of adult and family community literacy. First I would like to thank our guests: Margaret Doughty, Carl Guerriere, Petrice Sams- Abiodun, Darlene Kostrub, Jeff Carter, and Kathy Chernus. You can learn more about them by going to http://tinyurl.com/23nvye )

Here's how the National Institute for Literacy Special Topics discussion list works:

• A discussion opens and a few days later it closes. Between discussions there are usually no messages posted until the next discussion is ready to begin.

• A discussion is carried on by e-mail. As a subscriber all of the messages will be sent to your e-mail. These might include information, questions, replies to questions, comments and expansions, further explanations, requests for more detail, comments on other perspectives, and more. Sometimes a discussion with guests consists of just questions to the guests and their answers, but I will try to encourage real discussion, especially since we have other experts in community literacy among our participants.

• You will probably get a lot of e-mail from the Special Topics discussion list each day for the next five days! You might decide to skim the messages, read through the ones that especially interest you, and save the rest to read later. Every message is also archived at http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/2007/date.html

• You can get all the day's postings in one message each day, in "digest format". To find out how you can set your subscription to do that, go to http://www.nifl.gov/lincs/discussions/help/help_mailman.html#digest

• When you want to send a message, email it to specialtopics@nifl.gov and it will go out to everyone who has subscribed. Please check before you send it that the Subject line of the message is correct for your message, that is, if your message is a continuation of a discussion strand, leave it as is; however, if you are introducing a new topic or strand, then give it a Subject title that concisely and accurately reflects the new content area of your message.

We have several hundred people who are subscribed for this discussion, so we won't do introductions of participants. The bios at http://tinyurl.com/23nvye are your introductions to our guests. We have a lot of questions to discuss this week -- and you may want to post more questions -- so we'll get started now with the questions below to our quests.

We'll begin by discussing what Community Literacy is. There will be many variations on the definition, of course, and definitions in this discussion will focus on adult and family community literacy, not just schools reaching out to engage parents in the literacy of their children.

I would like to ask our guests to address the following question from their experience, from research, and/or from their professional wisdom:

What is Community Literacy?

• What does community adult and family literacy mean?

• What are the purposes and goals of community literacy?

• Why is community literacy important?

• Typically, who are the key community literacy stake holders?

On Tuesday we will go on to this question: How are Community Literacy Coalitions Developed and Sustained? I will also post subscribers' messages from Monday with their thoughts about what community literacy is.

David J. Rosen
Special Topics Discussion Moderator
djrosen@comcast.net

From: DoughtyHRC@aol.com
Subject: [SpecialTopics 334] Re: Community Literacy Discussion Begins
Date: June 24, 2007 10:04:00 PM EDT

David - thank you for the opportunity to be a part of this discussion. In response to your question I describe community literacy in the following way in my coalition development work.

Community literacy is the practice of infusing literacy throughout neighborhoods in an effort to build healthy communities and strengthen families. It encourages dialogue around shared problem-solving that leads to initiatives to raise literacy levels. Community literacy unites communities to promote the vision of 100 percent literacy through 100 percent community engagement. It includes all family members and all community stakeholders in a collaborative effort to promote personal success, economic, educational and social justice.

I'm looking forward to reading other descriptions and learning from colleagues about their involvement with community literacy efforts.

Margaret

From: DSKostrub@aol.com
Subject: [SpecialTopics 335] Community Literacy
Date: June 25, 2007 10:23:18 AM EDT

David, thank you for initiating this discussion around a vital topic.

One of the key goals of community literacy is to help position literacy at the top of the community's agenda so that everyone will understand that one of the best ways to address crime, poverty, teen pregnancy and so many other social issues is through making literacy resources and programs available to all those with limited literacy and English skills.

Key community literacy stake holders include business, the media, literacy providers, local education institutions, government, chambers of commerce, faith-based organizations, civic clubs among others.

Darlene Kostrub

From: jcarter@dclearns.org
Subject: [SpecialTopics 336] Re: Community Literacy Discussion Begins
Date: June 25, 2007 11:05:59 AM EDT

Hello everyone,

Than you for inviting me to be part of this discussion. The District of Columbia is somewhat unique, as compared with the states, in that virtually all of our adult literacy services are provided by community-based nonprofit organizations.

I would define community literacy as literacy instruction that supports the development and growth of healthy communities.

I'll let others weigh in before I address the other questions...

Jeff

Jeff Carter
Executive Director
DC LEARNs

From: seacesl@yahoo.com
Subject: [SpecialTopics 337] community literacy
Date: June 25, 2007 12:14:39 PM EDT

When considering community literacy and the goal of achieving "community literacy," we need to take into consideration the variety of definitions that cover the term "literacy," Basically, UNESCO and our own U.S. Congress defines a literate person as someone who has acquired enough functional literacy skills to perform adequately within his/her community. Functional literacy falls into three levels.

One-quarter of the population of the United States functionally tests at the lowest level of functional literacy; they often report that they do not possess the skills to perform such literacy functions as the ability to fully read and comprehend a newspaper article, fill out a tax form, or read a medical questionairre.

One-third of the population possesses the ability to perform the above functions and can compute simple mathematical questions: e.g., unit pricing, etc.

The final small percent of out population has achieved higher-level functions, such as the ability to write text about text, to read literature, scientific text, etc. These people have achieved critical literacy.

There is now a fourth kind of literacy, dynamic literacy, which assums the ability to incorporate text with other media -- computer usage, audio-visual information, etc.

We must determine at what level and which kind of literacy we are referring to when we speak of our "communities." For example, in the community where I work, I see signs in the stores such as "cigarett saled."

Certainly, the high the functional level of literacy achieved, the better.

We must also be more precise when defining "100 percent literacy" as a goal. Again, the community I work in will never achieve that; few communities will. We are now a multi-cultural, even multi-lingual nation, dealing not only with African-American dialect, but with many peoples who not only come from logographic and syllabographgic writing systems, but who may be illiterate in their native languages and dialects.

South-East Asia Center
5120 North Broadway Street
Chicago , IL 60640
Phone: 773-989-6927
Fax: 773-989-7755
E-mail: seacesl@yahoo.com

From: margeryfreeman@yahoo.com
Subject: [SpecialTopics 337] Additional questions to consider
Date: June 22, 2007 11:16:51 AM EDT

Dear David and all,

I look forward to this exciting and timely discussion of community literacy. Additional questions that I'd like to see discussed: How can we learn from the experiences of other countries, particularly those that have built successful literacy movements? What steps can we take to ensure that adult learners and other residents in the learners' communities are providing leadership to community literacy initiatives? What do we mean by accountability to learners and their communities and how can we build this accountability into comunity literacy work? what sort of training will best prepare community literacy coalitions to address community power dynamics, e.g. issues of racism, ethnocentrism? Thanks to all of you who are providing leadership for this conversation.

Margery Freeman

From: ALCDGG@langate.gsu.edu
Subject: [SpecialTopics 338] Re: Community Literacy
Date: June 25, 2007 3:51:54 PM EDT

Darlene,

I like how you stated "one of the key goals" and your list of stake holders. In your opinion, what are a few strategies to reach this important goal?

Daphne

From: carl.guerriere@po.state.ct.us
Subject: [SpecialTopics 339] Defining Community Literacy
Date: June 25, 2007 2:34:09 PM EDT

Community Literacy is the level of literacy in the community. It includes the levels of both children and adults. It includes all the venues that provide some type of literacy service. The general public primarily thinks of the school system. The array of providers and the sites where instruction occurs is vast. In my community both the public and private sectors provide services. This includes schools, community based organizations, hospitals, health clinics, colleges, prisons, businesses, childcare centers, churches, synagogues, libraries, homes, among others. We are all stakeholders because current community literacy levels impact us all.

Carl Guerriere
Executive Director/Literacy Advocate
Greater Hartford Literacy Council
One Union Place
Hartford, Connecticut 06103

From: jcruz@literacysandiego.org
Subject: [SpecialTopics 340] Re: Community Literacy
Date: June 25, 2007 1:42:42 PM EDT

The adult education and literacy community has been saying for years that its work is the key to healthy families, communities, and businesses. We have the data to show that this is true.

We have to appreciate that when we bring the literacy element to those who represent various aspects of our community, as Darlene said, “…business, the media, literacy providers, local education institutions, government, chambers of commerce, faith-based organizations, civic clubs among others,” we get a response and create an opportunity to have an impact on agencies, institutions, and those they serve. We put ourselves in a position to deal with community problems that are rooted in low self-esteem and low-level literacy skills…and that never seem to go away.

The opportunities to engage in genuine collaborations with the non-literacy community are numerous. We have to step out of the big literacy box and take what we do into the big community box…to generate real solutions to problems. We have to act in response to our belief that literacy is vital to a higher quality of functioning in our communities.

Jose

From: kchernus@mprinc.com
Subject: [SpecialTopics 341] Re: Community Literacy Discussion Begins
Date: June 25, 2007 2:53:27 PM EDT

Hi everyone. David, thank you for convening this discussion and inviting me to participate.

In the Community Partnerships for Adult Learning (C-PAL) study of community partnerships that support adult education, we found that community literacy looks quite different from community to community (see http://www.c-pal.net/profiles/index.html). For example, there are a variety of types of organizations that partner and may include one or several providers; they may serve a specific population or anyone in the community with adult literacy or English language and literacy needs; some have formal agreements but others have no infrastructure. That said, they share a common commitment to adult learners in need of literacy services. Many recognize the connections between adult literacy, workforce development, and economic development. The purpose of these partnerships is to increase the availability and quality of adult education and other literacy services.

In the partnerships we studied, the partners who come together to support adult literacy include: adult education providers (local school systems, community colleges, libraries, community-based and faith-based organizations, public housing facilities, correctional facilities, etc.), businesses, state and local government, workforce development and social service agencies, public housing facilities, and other community organizations.

Hope this is helpful.

Kathy Chernus

From: seacesl@yahoo.com
Subject: [SpecialTopics 342] Re: Additional questions to consider
Date: June 25, 2007 4:38:49 PM EDT

All of the countries that have been spectacularly successful at achieving 100 percent (or close) literacy are countries that are (or are have been until very recently) homogenous. They include Japan and Korea (which have writing systems created especially for their populations -- Hangul in Korea, and addendums to kanji in Japan, katagana and hirigana.) Eastern Europe was ruled in literacy by the Soviet Union, and the Russian language was mandated, replacing, for example, Arabic, in countries such as Uzebekistan. Western Europen nations remained homogenous unto themselves until the recent onslaught of Islamic immigrants. This has ripped apart the entire Western European educational system.

In the United States, we have struggled to bring speakers of African-American dialect to approach the Standard Common American English required by literacy. We now have to face the bicultural and bilingual and bilingual challenge of hispanic immigrants, and the additional issues of other immigrants who come from logographic and syllabographic systems who may not be totally literate in their native language.

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