Hi everyone. David, thank you for convening this discussion and inviting me to participate.  

In the Community Partnerships for Adult Learning (C-PAL) study of community partnerships that support adult education, we found that community literacy looks quite different from community to community (see http://www.c-pal.net/profiles/index.html).  For example, there are a variety of types of organizations that partner and may include one or several providers; they may serve a specific population or anyone in the community with adult literacy or English language and literacy needs; some have formal agreements but others have no infrastructure. That said, they share a common commitment to adult learners in need of literacy services. Many recognize the connections between adult literacy, workforce development, and economic development.  The purpose of these partnerships is to increase the availability and quality of adult education and other literacy services.

In the partnerships we studied, the partners who come together to support adult literacy include: adult education providers (local school systems, community colleges, libraries, community-based and faith-based organizations, public housing facilities, correctional facilities, etc.), businesses, state and local government, workforce development and social service agencies, public housing facilities, and other community organizations.

Hope this is helpful.

Kathy Chernus


On Sunday, June 24, 2007 7:29 PM, David J. Rosen <djrosen at comcast.net> wrote:

>

>Dear Community Literacy Discussion Colleague,

>

>

>On Monday we begin a discussion of adult and family community

>literacy. First I would like to thank our guests: Margaret

>Doughty, Carl Guerriere, Petrice Sams- Abiodun, Darlene

>Kostrub, Jeff Carter, and Kathy Chernus. You can learn more

>about them by going to http://tinyurl.com/23nvye )

>

>

>Here's how the National Institute for Literacy Special Topics

>discussion list works:

>

>

>• A discussion opens and a few days later it closes.  Between

>discussions there are usually no messages posted until the next

>discussion is ready to begin.

>

>

>• A discussion is carried on by e-mail. As a subscriber all of

>the messages will be sent to your e-mail.  These might include

>information, questions, replies to questions, comments and

>expansions, further explanations, requests for more detail,

>comments on other perspectives, and more. Sometimes a

>discussion with guests consists of just questions to the guests

>and their answers, but I will try to encourage real discussion,

>especially since we have other experts in community literacy

>among our participants.  

>

>

>• You will probably get a lot of e-mail from the Special Topics

>discussion list each day for the next five days!  You might

>decide to skim the messages, read through the ones that

>especially interest you, and save the rest to read later. Every message is also archived at 

>http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/2007/date.html  

>

>

>• You can get all the day's postings in one message each day,

>in "digest format".  To find out how you can set your subscription to do that, go to

>http://www.nifl.gov/lincs/discussions/help/help_mailman.html#digest

>

>

>• When you want to send a message, email it to

>specialtopics at nifl.gov and it will go out to everyone who has

>subscribed. Please check before you send it that the Subject

>line of the message is correct for your message, that is, if

>your message is a continuation of a discussion strand, leave it

>as is; however, if you are introducing a new topic or strand,

>then give it a Subject title that concisely and accurately

>reflects the new content area of your message.

>

>

>We have several hundred people who are subscribed for this

>discussion, so we won't do introductions of participants. The

>bios at http://tinyurl.com/23nvye are your introductions to our

>guests.  We have a lot of questions to discuss this week -- and

>you may want to post more questions -- so we'll get started now

>with the questions below to our quests.

>

>

>We'll begin by discussing what Community Literacy is.  There

>will be many variations on the definition, of course, and 

>definitions in this discussion will focus on adult and family

>community literacy, not just schools reaching out to engage

>parents in the literacy of their children.

>

>

>I would like to ask our guests to address the following

>question from their experience, from research,  and/or from

>their professional wisdom:

>

>

>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?

>

>

>On Tuesday we will go on to this question:  How are Community

>Literacy Coalitions Developed and Sustained?

>I will also post subscribers' messages from Monday with their

>thoughts about what community literacy is. 

>

>

>David J. Rosen

>Special Topics Discussion Moderator

>djrosen at comcast.net

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

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>Email delivered to kchernus at mprinc.com

>