Accomplishments / Student Voices / Student RESOURCES / COVID-19 Resources
Our Mission
The purpose of The Literacyworks Center is to assist underserved, below-basic-skills adult students in solving the many educational, personal and logistical challenges they must face to stay in school and succeed in work. The Center is providing advising, mentoring and scholarship support (through the Adult Literacy Awards) that help break persistence barriers to school completion such as transportation, childcare and tuition. As a further service, The Center is also dedicated to creating a stronger pipeline between qualified students seeking good jobs and local employers.
The Plan
The Center is partnering with adult students to achieve their goals by providing personalized support, long-term educational advising and performance- and need-based Adult Literacy Awards to help break persistence barriers. Our experienced and caring staff is supporting highly motivated students in charting a course towards a more prosperous future.
The Center is collaborating with our local partners, including Santa Rosa Junior College, Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, West Marin Community Services, Center Point of Marin and Sonoma County Library Adult Literacy Program, to refer highly motivated adults from their programs.
The Center is collaborating with state and national institutions, post-secondary schools, literacy organizations, service agencies, employers, workforce development partners and others to increase their capacity to effectively support the populations they serve, particularly with a focus on at-risk or underserved populations. The Center is linking theory and practice through research, professional development and partnerships, building and sharing best practices through national educational connections with the goal of becoming a national model and resource.
OUR PARTNERS
We want to sincerely thank our founding funding partners: the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, The Codding Foundation, Marin Community Foundation, Redwood Credit Union and our many individual donors. We also want to acknowledge our current referring partners: Santa Rosa Junior College, the North Bay Children’s Center, Center Point of Marin and West Marin Community Services.
The Literacyworks Center, partnering with Santa Rosa Junior College, opened July 1, 2015 on the SRJC Petaluma Campus. Providing face-to-face and digitally enabled personalized support, and long-term monitored advising, The Center is helping underserved adults in the North Bay complete their educational goals and increase the likelihood of career success. With the support of the North Bay community, The Literacyworks Center looks forward to providing many years of service fulfilling its ultimate vision of a stronger local community and economy through education.
LITERACYWORKS CENTER APPLICATION CRITERIA
The award goes to our students who are:
Accepted into the Literacyworks Center program or vetted by Literacyworks
Highly motivated as determined by referral partners and Literacyworks Center staff
Economically disadvantaged
Low basic literacy skilled
Enrolled as an SRJC student (includes non-credit Basic Skills and ESL courses)
Maintaining a minimum GPA of 2.00 (if applicable)
Preference is given to economically disadvantaged students under 30 years of age, or students over 30 years of age with children.
FAMILY LITERACY INITIATIVES
PARENT READING WORKSHOPS
Literacyworks Parents as First Teachers: Engaging Families to Increase Children's Literacy program works with low-literacy, low-income bilingual parents & children through a combination of access to resources in the home & the community & by training parents in the basic skills to encourage their children to become avid readers. The goal is to help parents view their parenting role in a positive manner, have appropriate expectations of their children's achievements, prepare their children with the necessary skills to be successful in school, and establish and maintain positive relations with community resources, including libraries, schools, and community groups.
Literacyworks has been an early adopter in believing that children’s first teachers are their parents. We work with educational and literacy programs, including family literacy programs that serve children under 5, in libraries and community-based organizations, throughout California and the nation.
Because children develop reading and writing skills as they grow, family literacy takes place during daily routines in life as parents, children, and family members use literacy at home and in their community.
The family literacy programs we have supported have addressed the intergenerational nature of literacy. Studies have found that a child’s foundation in learning is formed in the first five years before Kindergarten. A child’s learning begins at birth. It takes shape as children are nurtured, challenged, and engaged in high-quality learning environments and quality relationships with their parents and other primary caregivers.
Since parents with low literacy skills generally do not read to their children or encourage their children to read, their kids are less likely to participate in conversations, are not read to regularly, or have books in their home, so do not develop print awareness have a head start on reading and literacy skills when they enter school.
PARENTING IN HISPANIC FAMILIES
http://literacynet.org/phf/
Petaluman Rebeca Gutierrez has long dreamed of obtaining a degree in child development, but her path to success has been riddled with struggles.
Gutierrez grew up on a ranch near Valley Ford before getting married at 17, just after she graduated from Petaluma High School. She enrolled at Santa Rosa Junior College in 2009 before getting pregnant with her first son, taking a year off from school and then dropping out for another semester after the birth of her second son. She returned to the community college, but was again knocked off course when she had to travel to Mexico with her family after an accident that ultimately claimed mother’s life last year.
Gutierrez said juggling her aspirations of getting an education and launching a career working with children while taking care of her two sons on a limited income proved to be a struggle, and she found herself immersed in grief from her mother’s death.
“Literacyworks just made me feel very encouraged to stay in school and finish what I wanted to accomplish,” the 25-year-old said. “I don’t think I would have been this close to finishing without it, because without financial support, there’s not much I can do.”
(from Argus-Courier article September 25, 2016: Hannah Beausang staff writer)
NEWS
Center's Congressional Recognition
The Literacyworks Center received special Congressional recognition by Congressman Jared Huffman on the opening of our new Santa Rosa Junior College classroom saying, “Your collective work to ensure that all individuals have the skills, support and opportunities to thrive in a complex and inter-connected world through literacy is making a positive difference in many, many lives. Thank you for your effective programs and generosity of spirit, and congratulations on your grand opening.”
