Dear Special Topics Discussion Colleagues,

Our discussion on adult and family community literacy begins Monday,  
June 25th.  We have several guests with a great deal of experience in  
this area and whose short biographies are below.  I have also listed  
below many of the questions we will ask our guests. I have updated  
this announcement with additional questions that I have received in  
the last couple of days. Please add your own questions by sending a  
message to specialtopics at nifl.gov  Additional questions, comments and  
discussion will be posted beginning on Monday, June 25th, and will  
continue to be posted through Friday, June 29th

Updated Background Reading

1. Presentations from the National Institute for Literacy Community  
Literacy Summit held in Washington, D.C. on March 19, 2007
http://www.nifl.gov/nifl/community/communityliteracy.html

2. The Community Partnership for Adult Learning (C-PAL) Web site
http://www.c-pal.net , specifically
http://www.c-pal.net/profiles/index.html
  and
http://www.c-pal.net/profiles/index.html.
The C-PAL Toolbox contains a wide-range of resources that address  
community-based adult literacy and is available through the Home  
page, http://www.c-pal.net/index.html. The sections include: creating  
communities; curriculum and instruction (adult basic education/ 
literacy, high school credential programs, English literacy, family  
literacy, youth in adult literacy, correctional education, and  
learning disabilities); professional development; workforce  
development; technology; program management (it covers topics such as  
funding and grant writing, program evaluation, recruitment and  
retention, volunteerism); and more resources. (It includes  
information on the general state of adult literacy and adult education.)

The Creating Communities Toolbox Section,
http://www.cpal.net/build/communities/index.asp ,
features “how-to's,” research, journals, and Web sites that address  
how to build and sustain community partnerships.  These resources are  
also organized by type of partner, e.g., businesses, community  
organizations, and government.
C-PAL’s Building Effective Partnerships Self-Assessment Tool,  
available at
http://www.c-pal.net/assessment/index.html ,
is an online tool designed to help community organizations evaluate  
their adult education partnerships.  The indicators are drawn from  
the partnership research and the study of 12 communities.  After  
completing the self-assessment, users receive a profile of their  
partnerships based upon their responses and are guided to resources  
that may be useful as they build new or strengthen existing  
partnerships.

3. Build Literacy Web Site
Sponsored by the American Library Association and Verizon, the Web  
site “features information, materials, and resources about how  
libraries, local agencies, and corporate partners work together to  
build stronger community-based literacy partnerships and more  
literate communities.”

4. Literacy Powerline
http://www.literacypowerline.com has planning information in the  
resources and Literacy FAQ sections that can be downloaded.

Biographies of Guests

Jeff Carter is the Executive Director of D.C. LEARNs, a coalition of  
over 70 mostly community-based organizations that provide literacy  
instruction to children, youth, and adults in Washington, D.C. D.C.  
LEARNs' mission is to lead coalition members in efforts designed to  
strengthen adult, family and children’s literacy services in the  
District and present a strong, unified voice on the importance of  
literacy as an investment in the community. Prior to his appointment  
to this position, Jeff was the Education Technology Director for the  
Literacy Division of World Education. Jeff is a member of the Board  
of Directors of Literacy USA and a member of the District of Columbia  
Mayor's Adult Literacy Council, which is charged with making adult  
literacy policy recommendations to the Mayor and City Council.

Kathy Chernus, Director of Adult Education and Literacy for MPR  
Associates, is the Project Director for the U.S. Department of  
Education, Office of Vocational and Adult Education’s Community  
Partnerships for Adult Learning (C-PAL) initiative. Since 2002, C-PAL  
has been exploring how community partnerships expand and improve  
education for adults and their families.  C-PAL gathers and develops  
resources for adult educators who want to improve the quality of  
adult education through partnerships with other providers, employers,  
government agencies, nonprofits, and workforce development  
organizations.  The C-PAL website, www.c-pal.net, is the primary  
avenue for sharing these resources.  Kathy oversees the research,  
leads the development of the website, conducts site visits to  
promising partnerships, develops partnership profiles, disseminates  
the results, facilitates the work of technical and business advisory  
groups, and develops new tools and resources. In 2003, the C-PAL  
staff visited 12 communities around the country to learn how their  
partnerships have enabled them to better serve adult learners and  
their families. Profiles of these communities and mini-profiles of  
six others are available at: http://www.c-pal.net/profiles/ 
index.html.  Kathy is the co-author of Commitment Comes in All Shapes  
and Sizes, a report summarizing the findings from the study of these  
partnerships.  The report is available at http://www.c-pal.net/ 
profiles/index.html.  Currently, C-PAL is developing an online guide  
for businesses interested in becoming more involved in adult  
education and workforce development.

Margaret Doughty is an international literacy consultant providing  
literacy coalition development services to cities, regions and  
states. She works with local government, foundations, business and  
community organizations to link stakeholder, neighborhoods and  
services together to increase literacy levels through coordinated  
service provision and community collaboration.

A native of the United Kingdom, Margaret has been involved in  
literacy in Africa, the Middle East and the United States, developing  
coalitions, support service learning organizations, facilitating  
regional literacy planning, advocating for system change and raising  
resources.  She serves on the board of TAALC (the literacy coalition  
for Texas), Darla’s School for the Mentally Retarded, and Literacy  
Advance of Houston and works with national literacy organizations on  
community literacy issues, most recently presenting to the NIFL board  
on the need for tracking and accountability for community literacy  
initiatives to demonstrate both short and long term impact.

Carl Guerriere is the founding Executive Director of the Greater  
Hartford Literacy Council, a not-for-profit organization that serves  
as a regional broker and resource to coordinate and enhance literacy  
efforts in the 35-town Metro Hartford region. By providing  
information and a means for its more than 100 partner organizations  
to collaborate, the Literacy Council is a catalyst for action,  
raising the bar for literacy improvement in the region.

Before establishing the Literacy Council, Carl was program  
coordinator of Read to Succeed, a reading clinic for adults with  
reading disabilities.  Carl also served as Reading Center Manager for  
Literacy Volunteers of Greater Hartford, where he moved the program  
from one-on-one tutoring to small group instruction.  Before  
returning to Hartford in 1995, Carl was Associate Director of the  
Center for Urban Education at DePaul University in Chicago.  Carl has  
been a teacher and education administrator in New York City;  
Washington, DC; San Francisco; and Madrid, Spain.

Carl earned a dual Masters Degree in Applied Linguistics and TESOL  
from Columbia University, Teachers College, an English Teaching  
Degree from the Escuela Oficial de Idiomas in Madrid, Spain and a  
Bachelors Degree in Psychology from Trinity College in Hartford,  
Connecticut.

Darlene Kostrub serves as the Executive Director of the Palm Beach  
County Literacy Coalition in Florida.  She has been in this position  
since 1992 and has initiated programs involving adult, children and  
family literacy.  She oversees a Literacy*AmeriCorps project that has  
fifteen members that tutor in 12 community agencies.  She is also the  
director of the Region V Adult Literacy Center providing marketing  
and training for literacy in Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade and  
Monroe Counties.  She is the Vice President for the Florida Literacy  
Coalition and the Vice Chair for the Florida Reach Out and Read  
Program.  As a founding board member and past president of Literacy  
USA, she has been involved in bringing together literacy coalitions  
across the country to share best practices in community literacy.   
The Palm Beach County Literacy Coalition collaborates with over 130  
community literacy organizations as well as business and the media.

Petrice Sams-Abiodun (A-bee-o-dun) is the Executive Director for the  
Lindy Boggs National Center for Community Literacy at Loyola  
University, where she has an opportunity to combine her research and  
social justice agendas to address the issue of adult literacy.  In  
her role as the Director she is examining the broader issue of  
literacy as a vehicle for personal, economic and community  
empowerment.  In an effort to link research with practice she works  
closely with the Literacy Alliance of Greater New Orleans and other  
community and faith-based organizations to eradicate low literacy.   
She is personally committed to using her experience and skills to  
develop a stronger New Orleans and to this end serves on numerous  
advisory boards and committees.

Dr. Sams-Abiodun is a former resident of New Orleans public housing  
and a graduate of New Orleans public schools.  She received a Ph.D.  
in Sociology from Tulane University in 2003.  As a social  
demographer, her goal is to use research for the development and  
liberation of traditionally marginalized and oppressed people.  Her  
research areas include urban poverty and family issues.  Her present  
research focuses on the role and responsibilities of men as fathers,  
family and community members. She has been invited to numerous  
conferences to share her work and is presently working on a book that  
examines strengths as well as the plight of low income African  
American men. Her research contributes to a national agenda that is  
assisting in the rethinking of how we view male attachment in low  
income families, family structure and formation.

Questions we will Discuss

1. What is Community Literacy?

• What does community adult and family literacy mean?

• What are the purposes and goals of community literacy?

• Why is community literacy important?

• Typically, who are the key community literacy stake holders?

2. How are Community Literacy Coalitions Developed and Sustained?

• How do providers approach potential partners (other providers,  
businesses, social services, local government)?

• How do local partnerships generate the financial support they need  
to meet the literacy needs of their communities?

• What resources are needed for effective community literacy  
collaboration?

• How do providers sustain partnerships over the long haul?

• How do community-based literacy efforts survive transitions in  
leadership?

• What are some good examples of community literacy coalitions?

• What are some incentives and strategies for strengthening community  
literacy?

• How do community literacy coalitions or partnerships assure the  
quality of instruction? Is this an issue?  If so, what are some ways  
quality gets addressed?

• Are there performance measures for community literacy? If so what  
are they?

•  How can we learn from the experiences of other countries,  
particularly those that have built successful literacy movements?

•  What steps can we take to ensure that adult learners and other  
residents in the learners' communities are providing leadership to  
community literacy initiatives?


3. How can we measure community literacy outcomes and impact?

• How can we measure the health, outcomes and impact of community  
literacy?

• How do communities document the positive impact they’re having on  
adult education and family literacy, and workforce and economic  
development? What data do they collect and how do they use them to  
show their success?

• How do providers demonstrate to prospective or current business  
partners the return-on-investment businesses want to see as a result  
of their involvement in adult education?

• How can we measure the effect of community literacy on a community?

• What do we mean by accountability to learners and their communities  
and how can we build this accountability into community literacy work?

• Given the increasing pressure to demonstrate outcomes, how do we  
convince funders to support intermediary organizations that foster  
collaborations to address community literacy?

• What do we know about community literacy from research?

4. What is the relationship of community literacy to workforce  
literacy, workforce development, “healthy communities” initiatives  
and transition to higher education?

• What indicators, for example, have communities developed around  
literacy in thinking about a healthy (or “sustainable”) community?  
E.g. http://www.rprogress.org/cihb/index.shtml and http:// 
www.communityindicators.net/indicatorefforts.html


5. What is the role of technology in community literacy?

6. How can literacy organizations work together to make literacy a  
top community priority?

7. What sort of training will best prepare community literacy  
coalitions to address community power dynamics, e.g. issues of  
racism, ethnocentrism?


David J. Rosen
djrosen at comcast.net








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