Paul Szmal: And welcome back to FLX Morning on Finger Lakes News Radio. It's 8.15 and we're at 63. I'm joined at this time by Liz Cyril from Literacy Volunteers of Ontario, Yates County. Morning Liz. How are you this morning?
Liz Searle: I'm great, Paul. How about you?
Paul Szmal: Doing well. Doing well. We've received some good news in terms of grants for a couple of pilot programs.
Liz Searle: Yeah, this is really exciting for us because, you know, as a non-profit, Literacy Volunteers relies on grants, charitable gifts, fundraising events, and other philanthropic endeavors in order to fund our program because we don't charge our learners for the tutoring they receive. So recently we received two grants from some local foundations, like as you said, are going to fund some pilot programs for us. They're going to allow us to extend the services we currently offer our adult learners beyond the typical tutoring. So we're really excited about those.
Paul Szmal: For people that don't know what a pilot program is, this means that it's a program that is basically going to be tried out and then if the financial support is still there, it continues. Is that how that works?
Liz Searle: Yeah, that's certainly, well, that's part of it. You know, it gives us a chance to try something out, see if it works the way we think it will work, if it's going to achieve what we hope it's going to achieve, you know, what kind of surprises might be there, so that then we can decide if it's something that really is achieving what we want, we can try to continue it if we can incorporate it into our operating budget or go out and receive continuing funding for that. So getting a grant for that allows us to explore these ideas without the financial risk to the organization and hopefully has some really great impacts.
Paul Szmal: And the programs that we're talking about here, Liz, these are outside of the traditional tutoring programs that Literacy Volunteers already provides.
Liz Searle: Right, right. So I'll tell you a little bit about them. One of them, the funding came from the Rochester Area Community Foundation and it's going to support what we're calling our Career Accelerator Program. And that's aimed at giving our adult learners the skills that they need to find good jobs or pursue career advancement so that they're not underemployed. We've had conversations with Workforce Development and FLCC about providing some workshops that'll cover really important topics like resume writing and interview skills, how to make the most of online job boards, workplace etiquette or expectations, which I think is a really important thing to cover, especially for either young adults who maybe haven't had much time in the workforce, but also for our immigrant learners who their native workplace culture may be very different from ours here in the US. So helping folks understand the basics of what's expected of them in the workplace so that they can succeed. So that's one of the programs that we're really excited about.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, you know, having taken a couple of trips to Central America and been exposed to the different type of workday that is in place there, that's a good thing for people who are immigrant learners to be able to learn and adjust to. And it's great that there's a program in place now to help them do that.
Liz Searle: Yeah, we're really excited about it. We have conversations about that a lot with our tutors who work with our immigrant learners because even things as simple as a concept of time, and some cultures, they're not really as militant about being on time as we are here in the US. So that can be a real surprise or eye opener to some folks who are trying to get jobs here in the US and be good employees and that kind of thing.
Paul Szmal: We're talking with Liz Serrell from Literacy Volunteers of Ontario, Yates, here on FLX Morning about a couple of pilot programs that they've received grant funding for. So we've heard about the first program to help with everything from resumes to workplace etiquette. What's the other pilot program about and what will that be covering?
Liz Searle: Right, so that is a funded from a grant through the Wyckoff Foundation right in Geneva, and it has a family literacy focus. So I'm sure a lot of folks have heard the phrase that parents are their children's first teachers, which is very true, and it's illustrated strongly in regard to literacy. There's a lot of data actually around that. We know that children whose parents have low literacy are more likely to struggle with literacy themselves. Some research suggests that a mother's reading level is the greatest indicator of a child's future academic success, which is really fascinating to me. It's more important than the household's income level or even the neighborhood where they live. So this program will work with our adult learners who are parents and give them the knowledge and skills to effectively engage with their children in literacy activities and hopefully promote a love of reading and that sort of thing.
Specifically, we'll teach like age appropriate techniques to promote that. For example, if you have young toddlers and you're reading to them at night, which I'll say to anyone listening, if you have kids, read to them as long as they will let you read to them. There's some indication that that practice is in the decline, which is unfortunate because it's very important. But if you have really young toddlers, when you're reading to them, you can point out the colors and name the colors on the page or the animals on the page. And as they get older, then you ask the child to do that. So that engages them in a different way. And they're learning different things besides just what this word is. And then as they get older, parents can ask the child, you know, what do you think is going to happen next? Because that gets into prediction or who's telling the story. And that gets into narration and point of view. Even questions like, is this story true or is it a make believe story helps them begin to understand fiction and nonfiction and introduces the child to some of the language and vocabulary around literature and writing. So those are some of the types of things we'll work with our adult learners so that they can go home and use those techniques at home.
Paul Szmal: One of the great things about Literacy Volunteers as well, and something that I think it's overshadowed a little bit, we talk about a lot about immigrant learners coming in to learn English as a second language. But there are plenty of adults out there who need a brush up on their English and their literacy skills. And Literacy Volunteers is a great resource for that.
Liz Searle: Absolutely. We work with folks who are native English speakers. You know, they've lived here their whole life and they don't have a problem understanding or speaking the language, but they might struggle with some of the skills, the literacy skills that can show up in a lot of different ways. It could be numeracy and mathematics. Maybe somebody always struggled with that and never really mastered the numbers side of literacy. And being able to finally do that will really enable them to even manage a household budget effectively, something as simple but important as that. But also for reading, we work with folks who maybe didn't complete high school and want to complete their GED. We've worked with adults who are pursuing maybe professional certification every now and then. We work with somebody who's preparing for the military entrance exam, which is pretty comprehensive. And they'll be like, man, I haven't thought about science in years or something like that. So we'll work with them to brush up the skills they need in order to prepare for those exams. So you're right. Immigrant learners, native English speakers, they're all most welcome at Literacy Volunteers.
Paul Szmal: Are these two pilot programs, are they in progress right now or are they going to be starting a little further down the road?
Liz Searle: We just got the funding, so we're pretty sure that the Career Accelerator will be underway in September. It might take another few weeks before we're ready with the Family Literacy Program.
Paul Szmal: OK. And once those are available, people will be able to reach out to Literacy Volunteers to find out more about those services.
Liz Searle: They sure can. We're actually going to be working closely with our existing tutors and learners to identify folks who might be good prospects for those programs. But if people are interested in learning more, we're happy to chat with them.
Paul Szmal: And that resume and writing service and the workplace etiquette services, those are available to one and all, correct?
Liz Searle: Those are really primarily focused on our learners because a lot of times they struggle with underemployment. You know, they might get that entry level job and then it's hard for them to move on from that. So we're really trying to help our learners understand that there's a lot of opportunities out there and give them the skills to pursue those.
Paul Szmal: Beautiful. Beautiful. Well, thank you so much, Liz, for the information and congratulations on the awarding of these grants. I'm sure these programs are going to be very successful.
Liz Searle: Thanks so much, Paul. It is 8.24 on FLX Morning.
