The READER

 

 

April, 2008

IN THIS ISSUE

1.  Tattered Cover Corporate Spelling Bee

2. April is National Volunteer Appreciation Month

3. Official GED Testing Center Opens as part of Life Skills Project with Denver Sherriff's Department

4. The State of Working Colorado 2007 Report

Volunteer Tutors Needed for Aurora and Denver County Jail sites

For more information about volunteering with us please go to our website and click on the Volunteer Tab:

http://www.ColoradoLiteracy.org

 

How You Can Help Support our Programs

We are able to serve close to 3,000 adults and families each year throughout metro Denver through the generous contributions of both time and money from hundreds of individuals, corporations, foundations and organizations

Make a contribution to The Learning Source:

Provide textbooks for 1 adult: $50

Provide books for 1 children's classroom:  $100

Provide Citizenship Classes for 1 adult:  $250

Provide classes for 1 adult at a neighborhood learning center:  $500

Provide classes for 1 family in our family literacy program:  $1000

To make a contribution, please send a check to Executive Director, The Learning Source, 455 S. Pierce St., Lakewood, CO 80226 or click on the Donation Opportunities tab on our website:   

http://www.coloradoliteracy.org

Volunteer Your Time

For information about volunteering contact Tom Oatts at 303-922-4683 or Tom@ColoradoLiteracy.org

 How to Enroll in our programs

The Learning Source offers periodic, scheduled enrollment at most of our learning centers.  For a complete listing of our upcoming registrations, please call 303-922-4683 or click on the Schedules and Locations tab on our website:

http://www.coloradoliteracy.org

To Learn More About Adult and Family Literacy Use These Links

ProLiteracy Worldwide  http://www.proliteracy.org

National Center for Family Literacy  http://www.famlit.org

Thinkfinity     http://www.thinkfinity.org

Colorado Department of Education  http://www.cde.state.co.us/index_adult.htm

 

Calendar of Events and Trainings

April

National Volunteer Appreciation Month

4   GED Testing - Belmar

18 GED Testing - Belmar

May

2   GED Testing - Belmar

16  Tattered Cover Downtown Corporate Spelling Bee benefiting The Learning Source, Skyline Park

26  Memorial Day, no classes, Office Closed

30 GED Testing - Belmar

June

12   Denver County Jail Graduation

July

8   Summer Classes Begin 

 

Tattered Cover Downtown Spelling Bee to benefit The Learning Source for Adults and Families

  

Add your company's logo as a sponsor of this exciting event on May 16th at Skyline Park

Join representatives from metro Denver businesses who think they're "good spellers" at this fun downtown event. Team fees will benefit adult and family literacy programs offered through The Learning Source.

Not sure of how to spell a word. Consult your teammates -- group answers are acceptable!  Participating teams will consist of three adult members from each company.

The event is free to spectators. Live music, food and beverage options, and celebrity judges are sure to make it a popular annual downtown event.

To learn more about the Tattered Cover Spelling Bee sponsorships or to sign up a team click here:

http://coloradoliteracy.org/ecomm/index.cfm.fuseaction=category.display&category_ID=38

 

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Many thanks to our growing team of volunteers

April is National Volunteer Appreciation Month and, as such, it is always exciting for board members and staff to head out to our many learning centers to publicly thank our volunteers. 

Each year more than 100 volunteers donate in excess of 5,000 hours of their time to work with Colorado's adults who are learning to speak English, read, write and do math.  They are a diverse group of people of different ages, skills and life experiences who are dedicated to giving back to our community.

Do you know a volunteer ..... be sure to thank them for all they do to make our communities stronger.

Interested in becoming a volunteer ..... click here to learn more about volunteering for The Learning Source:

http://coloradoliteracy.org/ecomm/index.cfm.fuseaction=category.display&category_ID=32

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The Learning Source is pleased to announce the opening of our Official GED Testing Center

  Mr. Dwayne Burris and graduates

In January, 2008 The Learning Source Official GED Testing Center was approved.  This is part of a larger Life Skills Grant being implemented by The Denver Sherrif's Department.  The emphasis of this project is to provide intensive life skills training to misdemeanants at the Denver County Jail.  GED instruction and more frequent testing opportunities at the jail.  In the first quarter of 2008 we are pleased to report we've had 21 GED graduates from this program.

A side benefit of this program is that we are able to offer GED testing to other Learning Source students at our Belmar Center.  We are pleased to be able to offer scholarships to Learning Source students to offset the cost of the exam.  Additionally, participants in the Life skills project can continue their studies and complete their exams after leaving the Denver County Jail at Learning Source sites.  This is a vital part of the plan to reduce recidivism through this project.  Our first student from the program has made the switch to our Belmar testing center in her effort to continue her education.

Many thanks to the Denver Sherriff's Department and the staff at the Denver County Jail for partnering with us in this program

Colorado Fiscal Policy Institute releases State of Working Colorado 2007

Key Findings from the Study include:

  • Total non-farm employment reached pre-recession levels in 2005 and continued to rise. 

  • The unemployment rate has continued to drop, but still has not reached pre-recession levels. 

  • Hispanic and African-Americans lagged significantly in their recovery from the recession. They continued to experience higher rates of unemployment, nearly double and triple, respectively, the rate of white unemployment. 

  • Colorado continued to show higher than national averages on unemployment exhaustion and recipiency rates. Almost half of the unemployed in Colorado continued to exhaust their Unemployment Insurance Benefits. 

  • After rising from 2001 to 2003, the underemployment rate continued to decline, but it still has not reached its pre-recession level. 

  • Median household income has not recovered to pre-recession levels. 

  • The number of children living below 200 percent of the Federal Poverty Line continued to remain unacceptably high at 33%.  

  • The number of Coloradans without health insurance has increased to 746,000.

To read the full report click here: 

http://www.cclponline.org/pubfiles/SWC2007_Final.pdf

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The Learning Source
455 S. Pierce St.
Lakewood, CO 80226
Phone: 303-937-1980
Fax: 303-742-9929