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 April 2006 Back to Table of Contents Back to Archives Main Page Section: Life & Leisure Literacy Volunteers By Anna Hausmann
Diina began her involvement with Literacy Volunteers as a tutor in 1988. As Executive Director, she has worked on increasing fundraising to fund new programs, and on outreach to community groups in the most high-need parts of our community. She also saw the need to recommit both to the organization’s core mission combating illiteracy and to the city, which not only has great need for basic reading tutoring but also has growing numbers of immigrants, including refugees beginning new lives here, needing ESL (English as a Second Language) tutoring. “We wanted to get back to our mission,” says Diina. “The rate of functional illiteracy in our area is 30%, compared to 20% nationally. The need to work on basic literacy is great. We wanted to add youth programming to try to address illiteracy before it gets to adulthood. We also wanted to begin working with community partners to treat illiteracy as a community-wide issue.” The group added a Family Literacy Coordinator and works with area community groups, such as FLARE (Fillmore-Leroy Area Residents, Inc.) and the Goodwill Family Enrichment Center. At FLARE the group runs monthly Family Literacy Nights, as well as operating a book pantry stocked with several thousand books donated by various groups (including the Rotary Club and Leadership Buffalo), where kids can just drop in and get books to keep. “The U.S. Department of Education statistics show that 61% of low income homes and 80% of low income day cares have no books in them. We think kids should have books that they can take home and keep and read over and over. The book pantry is a great resource for that.” Literacy Volunteers also sets up a table at street festivals all over the city during the year where they give books to kids. Diina notes that they are always accepting donations for the pantry. Another new program is the Youth Mentoring Program at Enterprise Charter School, designed to improve the reading and social skills of students from fourth to eighth grades. “We match students with mentors who work with them two hours a week on job skills, homework and social development. It’s comprehensive mentoring that can change a child’s life,” Diina says. Another big change is the opening this year of satellite drop-in centers. “We have 300 active volunteer tutors at any given time, and last year we served 800 people with tutoring. But there is always a waiting list to serve adults, so we started drop-in centers with tutors available for whenever people come in.” There are ten such centers here, mostly in community centers and other centrally located sites, where individuals can get an initial assessment and start tutoring on the spot. For Diina, these new programs highlight Literacy Volunteers’ main mission: to reach out to those most in need to promote literacy. Whether through one-on-one tutoring, participating in their fundraisers or donating some books, giving your time and energy to work on literacy can really change someone’s life. back to top back to table of contents Current Issue | About Forever Young | Where to Find | Advertise | Our Advertisers | Community Calendar | Contest | Clubs | Contact Us | Archives | Home |
