Whoops - we missed International Literacy Day!

In all the chaos of Hurricanes Gustav and Ike, we neglected our usual observation on September 8 of the day dedicated by UNESCO to remind the international community of the status of literacy and adult learning globally. “Despite many and varied efforts, literacy remains an elusive target.” from the UNESCO website. In New Orleans, we dedicated the entire month of September to literacy after 9/11 seemed too close to 9/8 for a celebration, and since Katrina we have hardly celebrated literacy at all.

This year there were the usual events in Washington D.C. sponsored by the International Reading Association. We were still without power from Gustav, but I’m guessing it got little to no press coverage. (Did anybody see anything?) However, as my book group is currently reading “What is the What” by Dave Eggars, I was pleased to see one of the Rotary International sponsored projects is a Sudan Teacher Training project for those returning to the region who want to work in the schools. Way on the other side of continuum, there are many many downloadable activities, cards, and lesson plans for International Literacy Day from my favorite artistic escape, www.crayola.com.

AmeriCorps members started this week!

It just does me good to see all of the new energetic people in our community committing to a year of service in local literacy programs, some of which would close their doors without their fabulous members. I hope this bubble lasts a good long while as I just learned the application for next year’s grant is due in about a month. (sigh)

One Book One New Orleans has kicked off...

with distribution of copies of “City of Refuge” by Tom Piazza to literacy programs during the AmeriCorps welcome luncheon. The author has agreed to visit a literacy program at the conclusion of the One Book extravaganza, and Sarah has promised a prize to the AmeriCorps member who involves their students the most in the One Book project. The teacher’s guide will be posted on our “Partners and Friends” page soon.

Professional Development

The National Institute for Literacy is hosting a series of workshops starting in October on teaching reading for AmeriCorps members to help support local literacy programs and to build our capacity to offer this training in the future.

COABE and ProLiteracy are teaming up to offer an institute in the New Orleans area in December for program administrators and teachers on various topics – more information to come as we finalize dates and details.

COOP

As in disaster readiness, not chickens. Many thanks to one of our favorite partners, the Louisiana Association for Nonprofit Organizations (LANO) and their downloadable Continuity of Operations Plan (COOP) guide with checklists of activities and documents to take with you before a disaster strips. We felt much more prepared for any eventuality as we evacuated for Gustav and Ike. I hope if you’re reading this, you have a plan for your nonprofit in case something happens to your community.

Reading the word and the world.