Return-Path: <nifl-family@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id fB6MFF023957; Thu, 6 Dec 2001 17:15:15 -0500 (EST) Date: Thu, 6 Dec 2001 17:15:15 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <73.174ab566.2941476d@aol.com> Errors-To: listowner@literacy.nifl.gov Reply-To: nifl-family@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-family@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-family@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: BRmidwest@aol.com To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-family@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-FAMILY:445] Re: Barriers to Family Literacy X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas X-Mailer: AOL 5.0 for Windows sub 138 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Status: O Content-Length: 6189 Lines: 109 Here are SOME common obstacles to participation in a family literacy program--focusing on the adult education component and the parent-child activity component. (These are based on our own experience at a community-based family literacy program in Chicago.) -- Medical problems: Many potential participants have chronic health problems such as asthma, diabetes, or high blood pressure--or they may be caring for family members who have these problems. This may prevent families from enrolling in the first place or may interfere with attendance. --Mobility: Many low-income families do not have a permanent home or may move frequently for a variety of reasons. They may not participate in a program because they move in and out of a service area, or they may simply be frequently caught up with the labor and exhaustion of packing, hauling, getting settled in a new place, getting electricity turned on, etc. Families may temporarily separate--e.g children may go and stay with grandparents for several months, while parents try to find a better place to stay or while parents try to get their lives together in some other way. --Transportation. In urban areas, participants may not have carfare for public transportation--or in some cases may not budget for carfare. Also, the site may not be convenient to public transportation or may require multiple transfers from bus to bus, or bus to rapid transit. In rural or suburban areas, potential participants may not have access to a car or a ride --Domestic violence. Some participants may be held back by a partner who abuses them or tries to prevent their attending school regularly. Participants may be ashamed to attend or may be caught up in trying to protect themselves and their children from their abusers (through making police reports, getting court orders, etc). --Gang activity: The prospective participant may be caught up in a gang himself or herself, and the demands of the gang override everything. Or, more often, the prospective participant may have to deal with the effects of gang activity or violence: The prospective participant may be afraid to go out of the apartment with his or her children for fear of being attacked by gang members or getting caught in crossfire. The individual may lose more than one relative--a brother, a cousin, an uncle--to gang violence, and be caught up in hospital vigils, planning and attending funerals, and grieving. --"Giving up": Some potential adult participants feel that they have already failed at school, so why should they try now? They may devalue their own importance in helping their children learn because they "don't know how." Others--especially teen parents--may enroll and then drop out because their progress seems too slow to them. Their expectations for rapid progress may unrealistic, and when they are not ready to take and pass the GED within a few weeks or months, the goal may seem unattainable to them, so they quit. --Schedule conflicts related to work: Many participants work at odd jobs or on irregular shifts so it is hard to schedule adult education and parent-child activities around their work. Or they may be temporarily unemployed and decide to enroll, but then get a full-time job the next week and quit the program. --Simple exhaustion: Many adults are exhausted with multiple demands of work (regular or sporadic), going back and forth to public aid offices or social-service agencies when their caseworkers schedule frequent and inflexible appointment times, legal issues, childrearing, caring for other family members, keeping medical appointments (see above), moving, dealing with family conflicts, etc. Pregnant mothers may be exhausted from the pregnancy itself. --Trouble managing time or self-care: Teen parents, especially, may not organize their time well or prioritize their home and school activities well. For example, teen parents may stay up very late "partying" and then be too tired the next day to get themselves and their kids ready to go and enroll at school--or to attend a program once enrolled. --Substance abuse: The prospective participant may have the problem or may be dealing with a relative who does. --Lack of awareness of program: Some prospective families may not have HEARD of the family literacy program or may not know they are eligible for it. --Shame: Some prospective participants may be ashamed of their skill levels. They may not be able to face it themselves and thus do not enroll. Or they may have been covering up their literacy problems among family members and friends and may be afraid that others will learn that they cannot read or do not have a diploma after all. --Mental/behavioral health issues: Some prospective participants may be clinically depressed or have other mental health issues that prevent their enrolling or attending. Some may have emotional/behavioral problems--e.g. becoming easily enraged--that make it difficult to participate in a group setting. --Prevention by public aid caseworker or "system": Occasionally, a parent really wants to participate in a family literacy program, but her public aid caseworker or public aid office may insist that she not attend school but rather seek a job and work full-time. This is a partial list! Some of these obstacles are more easily surmountable than others. A family-literacy program or its referral agencies may be able to help in many cases--in other cases, no matter how much the program tries (through information, direct service, or referrals), the obstacle is (at least temporarily) insurmountable. I'll try to write some of the ways to address these obstacles--or at least the approaches our program has tried--but don't have time right now! I'm sure you will find a lot of information on this topic--and it may vary depending on the region, the population, etc. The better you know the population you are working with and the environment they live and work in, the more easily you yourself (the provider) can determine the potential obstacles. Betsy Rubin Blue Gargoyle Family Learning Project Chicago, IL
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