Welcome New Coordinator In Hillsborough County

This was just announced in the Hillsborough Literacy Council Newletter...

 

Hillsborough Literacy Council, Inc. has a new coordinator! Juliet Douglas served as Adult Literacy Coordinator since March 2010. She just added mobile services (the Bookmobile and Cybermobile) to her span of supervision and Ann Delaney has been selected as the new Adult Literacy Coordinator. 

Online Giving Tools

Do you want to know more about some of the online tools your literacy program could get through online donations?  Read reviews of different sites at Forbes best of the web.  It looks like some sites get a 3% cut of any donation.  Several have unique ways a person can give. El Centro, a literacy program in California uses www.JustGive.org.  The site gives the opportunity to honor a couple's wedding with a donation. Many have a way to put an app on your web or facebook page. 

As you see at the top of our blog, VALF uses paypal for you to  make it easy to pay for your VALF membership.  Join VALF today to get access to our members only wiki.

Share with VALF any online fundraising tools you have used.  What did you like or dislike about them?

Low Level E-Books for ELL

Best of the Reader has 14 titles which come from a newspaper for English Language Learners, the Westcoast Reader.  This is one place that you can find very low level titles.  Each comes with practice activities and a teachers guide.  If you are looking for a quick, easy to use selection, check these out. 

Free Book on Speaking and Cultural Terms

"On Speaking and Cultural Terms" contains linguistic and cultural information for 27 different languages in an easy to use and reproducible format. The sections of the book include an Overview of linguistic sounds, Sounds of English, Culture and Language information, Practice Sentences to be used with students and a Bibliography that includes references to additional material you may find useful.

Health Literacy Grant -- Feb. 16 Conference call

A second conference call is scheduled for prospective applicants regarding the 2012 Florida Health Literacy Initiative grant (information below). We will provide an overview of the grant application process and answer any questions. The conference call will take place this Thursday, February 16th, at 10 A.M. Participation is optional.


Dial-in number: 1-800-567-5900
Participant access code: 359700

2012 Health Literacy Grant Opportunity

Adult Literacy Statistics to Tell the Story

Since it is grant writing time, many of you are searching for the most current literacy statistics.  For a variety of  reasons, a lot of the data you are finding may be considered old.  The best data is almost 9 years old and comes from the National Adult Literacy Survey.  Census data on educational attainment is now 10 years old--since the new number of those lacking a high school diploma or for those at the 8th grade or lower level is not yet published. This requires you to be creative as you make the case for the need which relates to the grant guidelines or the story you want to tell.
 
There are many ways to demonstrate that low literacy is a problem in your community.  You will want to start with the most solid data based on the National Adult Literacy Survey and link it with current statistics.  The Survey was done in 1992 and repeated in 2003 which provided trend data for the first time. Even though Florida chose not to participate in the 2nd survey,  county data was extrapolated from the national findings and released about a few years ago. Here is that data.


Other more current indicators of low literacy


Florida Graduation rate is at 80% This link takes you to several publications at the Florida Department of Education (FDOE) web page.  You will need to scroll down on the page to see the actual tables with the graduation and dropout rates by county.  Florida Department of Education announced the improved rate in December 2011.  This rate is expected to go down next year because the numbers enrolled in adult education programs will not be included for the first time.

Grant Opportunities for Florida Literacy Programs

Dollar General Grant Due February 28, 2012   $15,000 grant

Health Literacy Grant Due $5,000 grant 
A conference call is today, February 6, 2012 at 10:30.