Redlands Library - Adult literacy program needs discussed at Coffee with the Council in Redlands

Adult literacy program needs discussed at Coffee with the Council in Redlands

Redlands Daily Facts: 2.16.2012 by Toni Momberger

Twenty-one people spread over eight Cuca's tables at Saturday's Coffee with the Council. Mayor Pete Aguilar attributed the high number to the presence of state Sen. Bill Emerson, R-Rancho Cucamonga.

The monthly meeting is an open discussion attended by two council representatives - this week Aguilar was joined by Councilman Jon Harrison. As always, several topics were brought up, including the replacement of illegally cut redwoods and street repaving.

Trudy Waldron, representing the Adult Literacy Program at A.K. Smiley Public Library, introduced a new subject.

She said the program has been struggling to reinstate itself since it lost its state grant in 2006. That grant was contingent on the city kicking in $10,000 a year, but adult literacy had not made the cut in a vote of budget priorities around 2005.

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After the grant was lost, the paid director position disappeared and the program ended, but Waldron, a volunteer tutor at the time, continued to meet with her learner. She later found out another woman did the same, and in 2010 they met and joined forces to bring the program back, running it themselves on a volunteer basis, which they are doing. But they need a paid director and updated materials.

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In 2012 the program clocked about 4,000 volunteer hours.

"It's grown such that a volunteer coordinator is almost a full-time position,"

Waldron estimated the group tutored about 60 people in 2012.

"Every week we have someone come in and say they need help with literacy needs," she said.  READ MORE !