Adult Literacy

Volunteer Recruitment

July 10, 2017 No Comments

As all adult literacy programs know, volunteers are the lifeblood to our programs. We use volunteers to tutor students, to assist in the office, to serve on boards, etc. But the challenge is always the same: where do we find more volunteers? This month we would love to hear some of the things that you do to find and recruit new volunteers. Here are a couple of examples to get you started. Social media. Though the usage of social media by literacy programs is improving, there are still more opportunities to improve usage of the media. It is imperative that

Join Together and Celebrate!

March 13, 2017 No Comments

By Pat Griffin, Associate Director, Interlocal Association As a Board member with the Indiana Literacy Association, my background is not in providing literacy services, rather, my career is in the administration of workforce development programs. While participating less than a year now as an ILA Board member, I have become increasingly aware of the connections as well as disconnects regarding coordinating literacy programs with workforce development program offerings. The Workforce development system provides services to the general public in WorkOne locations but often times in many other places within a community, such as Community Based Organizations and Libraries. Staff employed

Tutor Training Ideas From the Huntington County Literacy Coalition

February 9, 2017 No Comments

By Dawn Schmidt, Coordinator, Huntington County Literacy Coalition At last fall’s Indiana Literacy Association’s annual meeting, many of us were interested in tutor training. So I’ll share what we have done at Huntington County Literacy Coalition. Please share your practices and ideas too! We have around 35 tutors who meet with adults and children for individualized tutoring. Our volunteers are exceptionally caring citizens of Huntington County giving their time to help others learn. They epitomize our literacy’s tag line: “YOU CAN LEARN”. Each fall, we have new tutor training one night a week, for two weeks. This was a change

Annual Poetry Contest Announcement

January 24, 2017 No Comments

Greetings fellow Literacy friends, We are very pleased to be announcing our 1st Annual Poetry Contest! Adult Literacy Providers throughout the state are encouraged to help us find the “2017 INDIANA LITERACY ASSOCIATION’S POET LAUREATE.” The recipient of this award will be honored with: Indiana State Library Membership Card Press release to local newspaper in award recipient’s area Overnight stay at French Lick Springs Resort, French Lick, IN, on Wednesday, 4/26/2017 Recognized as a special guest during the Indiana Association of Adult and Continuing Education State Conference luncheon, where the award winner will be a featured presenter, and read

Our New “Blog of the Month”

January 10, 2017 No Comments

Greetings and Salutations fellow Literacy friends, At our last annual meeting, one of the things that you said you wanted from the Indiana Literacy Association was and is communication and sharing of ideas/resources. So, we formed a communications committee and continued the brainstorming on how best we can do that. Ta-da…you are now reading the blog of the month. Is that a cheesy name? Maybe we let you name it, hey; maybe we let you write it! Now, we are talking. We will be reaching out to members if you want to be a published blogger, send us an email.

Literacy in Indiana

November 10, 2016 No Comments

By Cynthia L. Cates, Executive Director, Kosciusko Literacy Services Long before adults become casualties of illiteracy, they were children who could not read. The window of opportunity for literacy never fully closes, but learning to read becomes more difficult as one ages. The literacy and language centers of the brain develop rapidly during the first five years of life. Though any child may have reading difficulties, children living in low-income homes are more vulnerable to not developing reading skills. The Indiana Literacy Association estimates that between 800,000 and 1,500,000 adults in Indiana read at basic or below basic levels of