Here are some recent happenings with adult literacy and Literacy Florida! volunteers.
LFv Wiki
We are sponsoring a Wiki to share and collect information beneficial to the volunteer literacy community if Florida at http://literacyflorida.wikispaces.com/
Please check it out and add information. You are welcome to set up a page for your volunteer literacy program’s activities or add pages on topics you are interested in.
To learn more about what a Wiki is go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki
LFv has a new address
2925 Optimist Drive Suite AMarianna, FL 32448
Telephone: 850-482-9296 Fax: 850-482-9297
Blog on Volunteer Literacy
As you see, we have set up a blog to keep you informed about happenings that impact Florida’s literacy programs. We are posting our newsletter on this blog as well as other happenings at http://literacyfloridavolunteers.blogspot.com/
We also are using this blog to hear from you. Please add your comments and suggestions through the blog. A comments section can be found at the end of each of the posts. Click on that and a box will appear to add your comments. You need to be signed in with a Google account to post a comment. The account is free. As you post, you sign in with your e-mail address as your user id and set up your own password. If you do not have an account, click “sign up here” at the point of making a post to create an account with your name, e-mail address and a password.
Please join our literacy community and add comments today. Let us know what is happening with your program as well as questions or thoughts related to volunteer literacy.
Student Persistence and Transition Project: NEXT STEP
After adults gain their basic skills with help from a caring volunteer, they often need to transition into an adult education class to gain additional skills. This is especially true for the many needing a high school diploma. This transition was an area identified at Literacy Florida!’s board retreat held in Fort Lauderdale in fall 2006. As a result, we applied for and received a federal leadership grant administered by the Florida Department of Education. We partnered with five local volunteer literacy programs to study student persistence transition and develop a tutor training component on this topic. The five programs selected were: Literacy Volunteers of Leon County, Broward County Library Learning Services, Calhoun County Public Library, Learn to Read of Northwest Florida, Inc., and Literacy Volunteers of Collier County. As a result of this project a training curriculum was created by Literacy Volunteers of Leon County.
Annual Meeting
The Literacy Florida, Inc.! Annual Meeting will be during the 2008 Florida Literacy Conference sponsored by the Florida Literacy Coalition http://www.floridaliteracy.org/. The Conference will be May 7-9, 2008 at the Grosvenor Resort at Walt Disney World in Orlando.
New Board Members
Three new board members were elected to the board at the May 2007 annual meeting. Joses De Moranville, a Literacy Supporter in Jacksonville, is Vice President. The other new board members are from libraries in central and northwest Florida. Erika Greene is the coordinator for the Lake County Public Library Literacy Program. Sharon Hastings Jaskula manages the Jacksonville Public Library Literacy Program.
Regional Training for Volunteer Literacy Programs
As a result of a recent survey of members, Literacy Florida! volunteers (LFv) is hosting regional training and networking meetings this year. The first meeting was at the downtown Gainesville library on Saturday, August 11 from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Representatives from programs in Marianna, Tallahassee, Live Oak, Tavares, Jacksonville, Gainesville and Sarasota attended. Everyone got a notebook of resources to help improve their programs.
The second meeting is planned for Sarasota after the first of the year. If your literacy organization would like to host one of these programs/meetings, please send an e-mail to literacyflorida@hotmail.com.
Libraries and Literacy
The American Library Association (ALA) has compiled a diverse selection of resources useful for adult literacy programs in libraries which can be found at http://www.ala.org/ala/olos/outreachresource/servicesnewnonreaders.htm
ALA has a Committee on Literacy and a Literacy Assembly. The Chair for 2007-2008 is Sandra O. Newell. Newell is President of Literacy Florida! and works as a library program specialist with the State Library and Archives of Florida Office of Community Development.
ProLiteracy America Trainer Certification System
In January 2006, ProLiteracy America introduced a new trainer certification system.
ProLiteracy America offers a number of supportive features as part of the certification system, such as: An online Tool Kit containing diverse resources that address training skills and content
The Florida Literacy Coalition, http://www.floridaliteracy.org/ provides a train the trainer workshop each year at the Florida Literacy Conference to help programs get new trainers. This training helps experienced tutors get the basic skills they need to give a workshop. It is not a required step in the ProLiteracy certification process.
Literacy Florida! Inc. is exploring ways we can help every program have a qualified trainer. E-mail us at literacyflorida@hotmail.com to share ideas of how we can help.
Program Accreditation
One way to prove to funders that you provide quality literacy services is to get accredited by ProLiteracy. Accreditation costs $400 and lasts four years. After applying programs have a year to meet all criteria. If full accreditation is not right for your program, managers can do their own self evaluation. Literacy Florida! has the expertise to help you evaluate your program or prepare for accreditation.
For more information about ProLiteracy accreditation, send questions to accreditation@proliteracy.org or call Mark Cass, accreditation coordinator, at (315) 422-9121 ext. 313. For general assistance on program improvement or technical assistance on accreditation, e-mail literacyflorida@hotmail.com.
