Reading program gets a grant
For two years, the adult literacy program in San Benito County
was non existent. In January Diane Leverich and San Benito County
Free Library staff relaunched the program with just one tutor and
learner
– Leverich as a tutor and her learner Kazumi Ito.
Reading program gets a grant
For two years, the adult literacy program in San Benito County was non existent. In January Diane Leverich and San Benito County Free Library staff relaunched the program with just one tutor and learner – Leverich as a tutor and her learner Kazumi Ito.
Leverich and Ito have worked together for one afternoon a week for months. Ito’s family is Japanese and they moved here when her husband was assigned a job at the Ozeki Sake plant in Hollister. The two have bonded and spend much of their work time together laughing.
“[Ito] has a 5-year-old son who didn’t speak any English and he would bring home all this slang – the kind of words that are not going to be in the dictionary,” Leverich said. “We talk about the current slang that 5-year-old kindergarteners are using.”
Now there are more than two-dozen tutors and learners who meet in the Barbara Memorial room in the library for an hour or two a week.
Four months and two tutor training sessions later, the program has 14 tutors and 17 learners with just a handful on a waiting list.
“It kind of took off at a fast pace,” said Leverich, a volunteer coordinator for the program. “I had no idea but with the publicity and the fliers there has been a slow and steady stream of people saying, ‘I want to tutor. I want to learn.'”
Now with a grant from the California Library Literacy Services, Leverich and the library staff have a chance to continue growing the program. They were awarded a $28,000 grant to be used in the 2006-2007 fiscal year and Nora Conte approached the Board of Supervisors April 24 for approval to use the funds. Her selection of uses was approved unanimously.
Much of the money will be used to purchase new equipment to be used by the tutors and learners, including two fully equipped workstations that will have computers, telephones, printers and file cabinets. Other items include a large screen television and a DVD player.
“If we get a computer station out of it, I can put online tutorial programs for the tutors,” she said. “We are looking to buy video programs as a tutorial for learners to use before they are matched up with tutors.”
While the bulk of the grant will be spent on installing and purchasing the equipment, $4,600 has been reserved for Leverich, Conte and a library assistant to travel to the READ/San Diego Literacy Tutor Conference and to purchase new teaching materials.
“We are lacking in things that could be useful and we have the money now to do it,” Leverich said. “The three of us are going to a two-day conference on training and we will be able to see all the materials from the vendors.”
The adult literacy program provides all booklets and materials to the tutors and learners so that the program is free for them. In addition to supplying workbooks, Leverich has started purchasing American Heritage Dictionaries so the learners can have them at home.
As the program continues to grow, Leverich stressed the importance of having regular tutor trainings.
“I’ve got to have tutors,” Leverich said. “If [learners] come forward, they don’t want to have to wait six months to nine months for a tutor. Right now it’s about 6-8 weeks before we can pair them up.”
If someone is brave enough to come forward and ask for help, Leverich said, she wants to make sure they get it in a timely manner.
With more training sessions and more resources, Leverich has the highest hopes for the local adult literacy program.
“In time I’d like to see 100 of each [tutors and learners],” Leverich said. “Certainly there are enough learners to fill that slot.”
