William Grant, VALUE National Trainer, Director of Education for Voz, Inc., a statewide professional development provider for New Mexico Adult Education, and Co-founder of BLAST, New Mexico's student leadership project

The VALUE Core Leadership training (www.valueusa.org) has a project template for teacher training that we wrote based on BLAST system for students teaching teachers.

For the past nine years, student leaders from BLAST have been involved in teacher training in New Mexico. They have lead workshops for ABE teachers at our state conference, regional professional development workshops and program in-services.

BLAST students present student perspectives on the ABE classroom. Their goal is to give teachers understanding of who adult students are, where they come from, and how that affects the classroom. They talk about teaching methodologies, communication between students and teachers and classroom dynamics. The issues range from the tiny details of making students comfortable to the difference between teaching kids and teaching adults.

Teachers in New Mexico have loved it. It gives them a chance to talk in-depth with students about their questions about teaching adults. BLAST's teacher training workshops lets teachers hear from students who have had the time to think deeply about their education, and the training to put their thoughts into words.

VALUE created its Core Student Leadership training through a three year process. It was created from the best practices of student leadership from across the US, student leaders with a decade of experience at the national level, World Education, and Union workplace initiatives. The training was co-designed with a nationally recognized curriculum designer. After that, we pilot tested it 5 states and then spent 6 more months on development. Finally, it was re-written by experts in easy-reader formats and plain language who had worked for New Readers Press. The training has been implemented in Massachussetts, Delaware, Pennsylvania, California, Texas, Washington D.C., and Vermont.

Will Grant has spent 15 years learning from student leaders. He co-founded the BLAST project in New Mexico with men and women from ESL, GED, and Literacy classes. Working as a collective, BLAST has spent the past 9 years training student leaders and working with educators to integrate student voice into ABE. Student leadership is has reached every level of the ABE system in New Mexico, from the classroom up to the state level. Students have positions on the statewide policy board and in the professional development system. They run several projects including:

• Nuestras Voces -- a spanish language leadership project);
• The Welfare-to-Work Peer Mentors program
• The Social Impact Theater -- where students write and perform plays based on their lives
• The Student Voice Network -- a statewide system of students and teachers in 22 ABE programs that has co-created student leadership curricula, trainings, videos, and action research projects.

In 2001, Will helped found Voz, inc, a non-profit organization that supports BLAST and other projects that develops the voice of people and communities that are not usually heard in our society. Voz is funded as a .223 leadership provider for the New Mexico ABE system.

Ernest Best, Executive Director, Massachusetts Alliance for Adult Literacy (Mass AAL).

The Massachusetts Alliance for Adult Literacy (Mass AAL) is an organization formed by current and former students of adult literacy programs, including Adult Basic Education, ESOL, and GED. Mass AAL is funded by the Massachusetts Department of Education, Adult and Community Learning Services. The VALUE training was utilized to internally strengthen our organization (Mass AAL). Their was some work done to build student leadership in Massachusetts at the regional level. For more information about Mass AAL, visit: http://www.sabeswest.org/publications/pipeline/Vol9-Issue3.pdf.

Ernest is a graduate of an adult literacy program at a community-based organization in Boston, Massachusetts. He subsequently attended the University of Massachusetts at Boston, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), graduating with highest honors with degrees in Management & Human Services. Ernest is currently the Executive Director of the Massachusetts Alliance for Adult Literacy and plays a role in leadership development for the adult learner and public policy. In addition, Ernest is the co-founder and Director of the Boston Adult Literacy Fund's African-American Men's Project. This program combines the best practices of Adult Basic Education with the latest in job and life-skills training and has received national recognition. Ernest also hosts a local radio talk show in Boston.

Sally Gabb, Director of SABES SE (System for Adult Basic Education Southeast). Sally serves as the SABES liaison to Mass AAL, the Massachusetts Alliance for Adult Literacy.

The Massachusetts Alliance for Adult Literacy (Mass AAL) attended the VALUE training as a team. We used the process to continue building our Mass AAL goals: to develop the Board of Directors for the organization, and to build regional student leadership teams through Mass AAL. Typing 'student leadership' into the www.sabes.org website brings up a collection of links and resources on student leadership.

I have worked in Adult Basic Education for more than 30 years, continuing to learn from learners about the strengths, potential and energies of adult learners. I taught ABE and GED classes for 13 years, worked as curriculum education director in a variety of community based ABE programs for 13 years , and have focused on professional development for the last four years. For me, adult basic education is a process of educational dialogue and sharing in which learners should be partners in creating the most dynamic and effective system.

Stephen Hanley, Executive Director, W.A.I.T.T. House, Inc., Roxbury, Massachusetts. For 20 years, the WAITT House program has involved learner leadership at every level: volunteer, student advisory council, internship, staff, community activism, and the governing level.

About W.A.I.T.T. House: http://www.collegetransition.org/profiles/profileswaitt.html

"In 1979, Sisters of Charity from Boston's Saint Patrick's School and neighborhood residents vowed that "We're All In This Together " as they dedicated themselves to providing essential services to the people. The philosophy-- and the name-- seemed right, and W.A.I.T.T. House has been offering its participants opportunities to improve their lives and their communities for 23 years. Since 1983, when Barbara Bush visited W.A.I.T.T. House to inaugurate the Boston Adult Literacy Initiative, its central focus has been providing quality adult education. Its current offerings include Adult Basic Skills, Boston's External Diploma Program, Financial Literacy, Career Awareness, Computer Literacy, Counseling and Support Services, as well as community and lifeskills projects developed by our student advisory council. We are particularly proud of our newest programs: Diploma Plus (a transition to college component), WOW! (Women of W.A.I.T.T. House), and the AAMEN support group for male participants.

W.A.I.T.T. House's mission is to bring adults from different cultures together to bring about positive change-- for themselves, their families, and their neighborhoods. Its participants reflect the multi-racial, multi-ethnic, multi-lingual population that embodies Boston's Roxbury and Dorchester communities. W.A.I.T.T. House is a full-time day program (9:00 AM-1:00 PM) serving more than 120 participants a year. It has produced 385 high school graduates through Boston Public Schools' External Diploma Program, the highest number of graduates among adult literacy programs in Boston, and has maintained a 96% placement rate of its graduates into college, jobs, or skills training."

Benika Pierce, Learner Leader, Literacy Council of Tyler (LCOT), Texas. Benika co-developed M.O.M.S.( Motivating Other Mothers for Success), a support group designed to create an encouraging community for moms attending GED classes and cultivate learner leaders. She has attended LCOT for the past 8 months, and has passed 3 parts of her GED and is studying to take the remaining two tests. "The literacy council opened the door for me to start an internship at the local TV station. I plan to attend college in order to become an anchor for a television station."

AND

Angela Childers, Case Manager/Instructor, Literacy Council of Tyler (LCOT), Texas. Angela served on a team with adult learners in developing M.O.M.S. Angela joined LCOT 2 years ago working with TANF eligible students, and is involved in enrollment and case management of students.

About M.O.M.S. and LCOT:
We have developed a support group to create an encouraging community for moms that are attending GED class. The support group is called M.O.M.S. that is an acronym for Motivating Other Mothers for Success. The objective of the group is to encourage each other to get their GED and to realize the potential they have to meet job and personal goals after they get their GED. We are developing leaders from this group that do smaller projects when they have the time to dedicate to a project.

The Literacy Council Of Tyler started in 1990 and serves 2,700 students annually. Currently we have 300 volunteers and 57 staff members.

Pixie Hankinson, Executive Director of Vermont Adult Learning, a private nonprofit that holds the contract with the State Department of Education to provide consistent, comprehensive adult education and literacy services statewide. We subcontract with three other regional providers and have named the statewide system "Learning Works". That name will appear on the signs in front of all ten full-service centers and satellite centers across Vermont.

For over ten years, Vermont Adult Learning (VAL) has had local student advisory boards and a statewide student advisory board (SSAB) that reports directly to the Executive Director. The Chair of the SSAB serves on the VAL Board of Directors.

VAL, with the financial support of the State Department of Education, has sent at least two students to every VALUE national meeting since its inception. Two years ago we sent 9 students to their meeting in Florida and took 12 students to their meeting in D.C. last month.

Students and teachers have been so inspired by these meetings that we invited VALUE to provide a leadership training in Vermont last Fall. Teachers and students alike agreed that it was an exceptional training.

VAL fully supports the concept of learner leadership and has committed staff and additional financial resources to ensure that we are able to successfully implement local student advisory boards in all of our full-service centers. We believe absolutely that the key to improved student recruitment, retention, and outcomes is engaged student leadership supported by staff.

VALUE has been a great resource. One of our student leaders now serves on the VALUE Board of Directors.

Judy Healey-Schmidt, OAASIS (Organization of Adult Alumni and Students in Servive) worker. Judy acts in a program advisory capacity, assisting students, instructors, and program administrators in day-to-day activities.

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Meredith Lewis, OAASIS (Organization of Adult Alumni and Students in Servive) Advisor, Deleware. Meredith coordinates events and provides support to OAASIS workers. OAASIS is the statewide student organization which links current students with their peers.

We are implementing the VALUE Leadership Training in the planning of our activities. We plan a conference for all adult learners in the state in which we offer conferences, a key-note speaker, and have an award ceremony celebrating students' accomplishments. We also have a legislative dinner where we invite all of our legislators and students to attend so that students may share their stories with their senator or representative.

The Organization of Adult Alumni and Students in Service ! (OAASIS) is a statewide organization which links current students with their peers. OAASIS workers provide assistance to adult education students in many ways including tutoring, transportation, and encouragement.

OAASIS has a website which goes more in-depth on the services we provide.: http://www.homestead.com/oaasis/ These services are enabled by the training we received from VALUE. The OAASIS workers are finding that they are leaders and are therefore able to show their students that they are/can be leaders also.

Daniel Behnke, AmeriCorps VISTA Volunteer, Florida Literacy Coalition. Daniel works in collaboration with adult learners to increase leadership opportunities for adult learners in Florida.

The Florida Literacy Coalition works closely with VALUE to improve adult learner leadership in our state. Last November, VALUE held their National Core Learner Leadership training in Orlando. This training was attended by forty adult learners and program managers. The FLC hopes to continue to offer this training in future years.

Established in 1985, the Florida Literacy Coalition promotes, supports and advocates for the effective delivery of quality adult and family literacy services in the state of Florida. As a statewide umbrella literacy organization and the host of Florida's Adult and Family Literacy Resource Center, FLC provides a range of services to support more than 300 adult education, literacy and family literacy providers throughout Florida. Special emphasis is placed on assisting community-based literacy organizations with their training and program development needs.