Building Bridges to Productive Lives: Literacy Volunteers of Central Connecticut
What does literacy mean to you? For the staff and volunteers – but mostly for the nearly 500 adults served last year by Literacy Volunteers of Central Connecticut – learning to read, write or speak English just scratches the surface.
Literacy means finding a job. Literacy means helping your child with homework. Literacy means passing a U.S. citizenship exam. Literacy means self-confidence. Literacy means independence. Literacy means sleeping well at night, knowing you have the tools and confidence to provide for your family.
Literacy means life.
Literacy Volunteers of Central Connecticut, based at the New Britain Public Library, serves the people of 16 towns in the Central Connecticut region. The program serves adults 18 and older, many of whom are at society’s lowest levels of literacy. By far, the program’s largest number of students, some 90 percent, are students from other countries who do not speak English. But there are many American-born students who simply may never have learned to read or write.
But the Literacy Volunteers program can mean much more than simply learning to read, write or speak English. In recent years, the program has focused on a variety of new need-specific programming, such as math literacy, computer literacy and family literacy. These new initiatives are designed to help students where they need it most, whether it is to pass a driver’s test, get a job or better understand their child’s school curriculum and educational requirements.
“We are really focused on what the student needs and wants to learn,” says Darlene Hurtado, executive director. “It’s generally community goals, work goals, family goals. Most of our students love to learn; they have the skills, but maybe they just never had the opportunities most of us enjoy.”
Family literacy has become a significant component of the program. Literacy Volunteers works cooperatively with the New Britain school system to conduct programming for families at Jefferson and Smalley Elementary Schools that helps families bond and work together to overcome their literacy challenges.
The Community Foundation of Greater New Britain has been a long-time supporter of Literacy Volunteers. Since 1982, the Foundation has provided nearly $250,000 in grants to the program, including funding for a unique program called Bridges to Literacy, which ensures that students who are successful in the classroom can translate that success to family, work and community life.
“The Community Foundation’s support has really helped us get to that next level,” says Hurtado.
Originally published 6-08.
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