ADULT EDUCATION IN PALM BEACH COUNTY
Partnerships with the Literacy Coalition of Palm Beach County
The Literacy Coalition of Palm Beach County orchestrates literacy services, recruitment, fundraising, and outreach for this large south Florida county. In an office in southern Palm Beach County, a bilingual receptionist answers the literacy hotline. The call could be from an adult who saw a bus sign about English classes, or from a potential tutor interested in working with adults who need to learn to read, or from a community member who wants to know who will be the keynote speaker at the next Love of Literacy Luncheon. Because many recent immigrants in the county are from Haiti, a Haitian/Creole translation service is available during business hours in case callers do not speak English or Spanish.
The receptionist fills out a standard intake form for each call and sends the intake form to the appropriate Coalition staff person for follow up. For example, an adult seeking to earn a GED diploma might be directed to the classes provided by the school district on weeknights at their local high school or to another partner who provides classes. During fiscal year 2002-2003, the hotline handled about 1,700 calls from potential adult learners and volunteers throughout the county.
Besides staffing the hotline, the Coalition staffs, manages, and funds an extensive array of literacy-related programs based on partnerships and geared to all age levels, such as the following:
-
Care to Read provides training and resources for childcare staff. Since its inception in Palm Beach County, it has expanded 90 preschool libraries, provided professional development to 150 childcare staff members, and distributed hundreds of new books to young children across the county.
-
Reach Out and Read is a literacy initiative with pediatricians. Volunteers in pediatricians' waiting rooms model effective reading strategies with the children and distribute free books for the children to take home. The pediatricians themselves advise parents about the benefits of reading to their children. Reach Out And Read is active at 22 sites in Palm Beach County.
-
After School Reads trains after-school program staff at 30 sites on strategies for including reading in their activities. In Palm Beach County, 75 after-school providers have attended training. Currently this project is working with fourth-graders to encourage them to read with younger students as Bookwork Buddies.
-
The America Reads Challenge recruits and trains hundreds of Learning Partner volunteers to provide reading enrichment on a one-to-one basis for at-risk students in public elementary schools, after-school tutorial programs, and preschool. In Palm Beach County, more than 850 kids have a one-to-one relationship with a volunteer tutor.
-
The Region V Adult Literacy Center coordinates literacy efforts in the four counties of southern Florida, linking the counties with local literacy coalitions and helping to establish and mentor new literacy coalitions in the region. It also offers many resources for improving and expanding adult education services, specifically in the form of how-to manuals. Region V's work, funded primarily by the state department of education, also includes recruiting adult learners and volunteers.
In addition to these formal programs, the Coalition sponsors a panoply of other activities to promote adult education and literacy in the county, including:
- Providing funds to various service providers to buy books for students to take home to start their own libraries.
- Recruiting and placing AmeriCorps volunteers in literacy programs throughout the community.
- Creating bookmarks, bus signs, brochures, and posters in English, Spanish, and Haitian/Creole to distribute around the community.
- Organizing field trips for adult learners, including a real civics lesson—a visit to Tallahassee to meet their state representatives.
