New Haven Independent

The Greater New Haven Literacy Coalition (www.gnhlc.org) sponsored a forum Tuesday morning to address reading, Connecticut’s work force, and coordination of adult literacy programs. Held at Tower One, the event was emceed by Ellen Thompson — vice president of the all-volunteer coalition and director of adult education in Hamden — and featured three speakers as well as participation by a range of coalition members from across the region.

Jill Jensen (pictured), chief analyst of the state legislature’s Program Review and Investigations Committee, presented the committee’s report, “Coordination of Adult Literacy Programs.” She emphasized a “large unmet demand” for literacy services amid the increasing literacy levels required for success and employers’ need for more workers with sufficient reading skills. While
acknowledging the virtue of the many options providers offer, she lamented fragmentation of service delivery and accountability. The report recommends a sharper statewide focus on literacy, including creation of an automated, interactive database of public and private services throughout Connecticut. Concluding that collaborative service delivery is the “most effective approach for many adult literacy services,” the report endorses the role of regional and local partnerships. Jensen described the recently inaugurated literacy coalitions in greater New Haven and in greater Hartford as “models of what needs to be done at the state level.”

Mary Lou Aleskie, executive director of the International Festival of Arts and Ideas, spoke about The Big Read. (Aleskie is pictured; Chris Alexander of New Haven Reads and Curtis Hill of Concepts for Adaptive Learning, both board members of the coalition, are at right.)

This citywide event, funded by the National Endowment of the Arts, encourages all community members to read and discuss Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, many free and discounted copies of which are available. Aleskie cited research suggesting that
those who read literature are more “outward oriented” and civically involved as volunteers and citizens. Numerous related events are listed on the festival’s Web site, including a June 9 Big Read on the Green with keynote speaker Billy Collins, the nation’s former poet laureate.

Kymbel Branch, manager of career services at the Workforce Alliance (pictured with Tomas Miranda, president of the Greater New Haven Literacy Coalition), explained a number of such services that residents of the region may use. She indicated that many services — including job training, counseling, and tuition reimbursement — are open not only to individuals who are unemployed but also to those who are seeking to boost their skills and wages as they “move up the career ladder.” Those earning up to $19.29 per hour, or $41,000 per year, are eligible given the burdensome costs of housing, transportation, and child care. Federal Workforce Investment Act funds help make this program possible.

Also speaking briefly at the event was Coalition President Tomas Miranda, formerly the New Haven Public Schools’ supervisor of bilingual education and now at Casa Otonal. Other participants represented organizations including the following:
• New Haven Adult Education;
• New Haven Reads —
which offers free books and tutoring;
• Concepts for Adaptive Learning,
which equips and trains New Haven parents to use computers in the cause of their and their children’s learning;
• the Jewish Coalition for Literacy (a project of the Jewish Community Relations Council ), which brings volunteer tutors to four New Haven public school partners, Katherine Brennan, Christopher Columbus Family Academy, Edgewood, and Nathan Hale;
• the Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute , a
partnership between Yale and the New Haven Public Schools that offers professional development to district teachers in a collegial setting and whose resulting curricular resources are available online at no charge.

The Greater New Haven Literacy Coalition is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to serve as a clearinghouse to promote, support and advance literacy for people of all ages in our region.