March 2009 News and Notes

NEW NAME / NEW LOGO
VALF, Volunteers for Adult Literacy in Florida, has a new logo as well as a new name. The Lake County Public Library staff designed this new logo for VALF to reinforce our new name.

New Cycle of Grant Applications
VALF will award another round of grants to support Florida's volunteer literacy programs. This year, grant awards will be as much as $500, an increase from last year's grants of $300.

Organizations who are members of VALF can apply for a grant in March 2009. Grants will be awarded at the VALF annual meeting at the Florida Literacy Conference in Clearwater on May 7, Friday, at 10:00 a.m. If your organization is not a member, it only costs $25 to join. For more information about the grant program, email literacyflorida@hotmail.com.

This year VALF will award grants in honor of Jack Newell, a long time leader in volunteer and family literacy in Florida. We have extended the deadline for you to make a donation in Jack's honor. If you are a friend or colleague of Jack and want to be part of this surprise, complete the form posted in our blog below, and mail us your check. Our deadline was extended to March 31. If you send by then, we will award your dollars this year.

Jacksonville Program for Volunteer Literacy Programs
A program on the start up and improvement of volunteer literacy programs will be the topic covered at a networking workshop on Saturday, March 7, from 9:30 am - 12:30 p.m. at the Jacksonville downtown library. VALF is providing this free program for literacy groups. The main library is located at 303 N Laura St [32202]. Their phone number is (904) 630-2665 or see at map.

The session will be followed by the VALF Board Meeting. For more information about the session or board meeting, call Sandy Newell at 850-245-6624 or email her at snewell@dos.state.fl.us

Virtual Library Literacy Summit
The American Library Association is hosting the first library literacy virtual summit in April.

Literacy for ALL: Advocacy, Libraries, and Literacy

When:	1:00PM ET Tuesday, April 7th
Where:	Webcast

The current ALA President, Jim Rettig, will join the incoming President, Camila Alire, and leaders from all types of libraries to explore the roles of libraries in literacy. Go to the ALA Committee on Literacy's facebook account to learn the latest.

If you set up your own facebook account, you can become a fan of the ALA Committee on Literacy and get the latest information on the Summit.

Some literacy programs and libraries use facebook and other free social networking tools to advertise their own literacy program.

VALF Program on National Trends in Library Literacy
Sandy Newell, President of VALF and Chair of the ALA Committee on Literacy, will lead a discussion on library literacy program issues during the Florida Literacy Conference. The session will be at 8:30 a.m. on Friday, May 8. It is one of several events nationwide follow-up on the ALA virtual library literacy summit. This will be the only opportunity for library literacy practioners to meet and discuss issues.

Tips for Program Managers, Tutors and Trainers

Gaming and Literacy Toolkit
Libraries are finding that games are excellent tools to foster literacy while attracting teens into the library. ALA has just published an online toolkit to help library staff who want to do their own gaming program. The toolkit contains a fact sheet on gaming and literacy.

Gaming helps a person gain vocabulary, solve problems and develop a higher order of thinking skills -- all necessary for literacy. During gaming sessions, students practice their reading while "having fun at the same time". Literacy programs have often used games to reinforce learning. Now the library could be a partner. Volunteer literacy programs who want to appeal to young adults could join with the library to provide a gaming night for their students.

ProLiteracy Provides Stimulus Webinar with No Mention of Volunteer Literacy

Joyce Whiddon, Tony Lagos and and Phil Anderson were Florida literacy professionals attending a free webinar hosted by ProLiteracy on February 26 on strategies and tips for accessing stimulus funding at the local level. Surprisingly, little was said about whether there was any help for volunteer literacy programs.

Nonprofit groups were briefly mentioned and schools were often cited as potential recipients. Groups were encouraged to connect with their state's politicians or advocate for adult education at the Local Education Agency (LEA) level. May 1 was a date mentioned on when plans on how state's utilize the dollars had to be completed.

A panel of experts discussed major provisions of the stimulus package, LEAs, and adult formula grants, along with other parts of the stimulus that could benefit adult literacy and basic education programs.

One of the observations made by several speakers was that the stimulus bill requires concurrency between attainment of basic skills and vocational skills. The bill is all about jobs.

Quality literacy programs are positioned to move quickly. Because many of our programs are small and use one on one tutors, we can work closely with students. Lessons often include instruction on reading, writeing and speaking English while teaching specific job skills and language. This link between the two may a key for volunteer groups to earn stimulus dollars.

Please share your ideas on how programs can tie job skills with basic skills here. We also want to hear your over all thoughts and suggestions about volunteer literacy in the comments section of this blog.

Links on How Facebook and Social Networking Sites to Support Literacy

MySpace, Facebook Promote Literacy article from School Library Journal 6/25/08 by Debra Lau Wheland
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6573270.html

Recruitment video on Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1089097826690

Page Being Used to Ask for Donations
http://apps.facebook.com/causes/194131?m=8ef6a43a

How to Use Facebook
http://www.wildapricot.com/blogs/newsblog/archive/2007/05/23/put-your-non-profit-on-facebook.aspx

Example of a Volunteer Literacy Tutor Wiki
http://adult-literacy.wikispaces.com/Instruction


Program Management Links

How to Start a Volunteer Literacy Program
Illinois Department of State

Florida Literacy Coalition
Resources and training opportunities for Florida volunteer literacy programs

National Assessment of Adult Literacy
NAAL finally released estimates for Florida, county by county using the numbers for basic prose literacy from the 2003 national survey. 20% of Florida's adults lack basic literacy. The poorest literacy rates coincide with the number on non-English speakers. Miami ranks the highest with 52%. St. Johns (7%) and Clay County (9%) have the best rates as compared to Hendry County with 42%. An excel spread sheet with these numbers can be downloaded from this site.