California Value of Volunteer Time 2015 :: $27.59 per hour

National Value of Volunteer Time: 2015

Independent Sector

Estimated Value of Volunteer Time for 2015: $23.56 per hour

California: $27.59

The estimate helps acknowledge the millions of individuals who dedicate their time, talents, and energy to making a difference. Charitable organizations can use this estimate to quantify the enormous value volunteers provide.

According to the Corporation for National and Community Service, about 62.8 million Americans, or 25.3 percent of the adult population, gave 7.9 billion hours of volunteer service worth $184 billion in 2014.2 For the latest information, please see www.volunteeringinamerica.gov.

For more information on the economic impact of nonprofits by state, please visit our state profiles portal.

Value of Volunteer Time by State 2001-2015.pdf

CLOZE Activities :: ESL | Comprehension | Songs | Jokes | Vocabulary

Tweet – Tweeter – Tweetest

Superlatives from SCLLN

10 Clever Cloze Activities for Any English Classroom

http://ow.ly/3MgM303caca

#esl

#teachenglish

@FluentUEnglish  Aug 6

Suzanne by Leonard Cohen

– a gap-fill listening comprehension exercise

@EnglishFilesCom Aug 5

Quick Cloze Passages for Boosting Comprehension 2

http://ow.ly/gwlY303c9Vo

#bestseller

#BookBoost

@BuyBookstore Aug 6

FREE Cloze Reading Worksheet:

http://ow.ly/pzk0303c9tr

#tptdotcom

#teacherspayteachers

#tpt

@LightbodyTPT Aug 4

5 ESL Cloze Activities to Make Vocabulary Stick All Year Long

http://bit.ly/28UfCTP

@FluentU Jun 25

This app constructs open cloze tests

and vocabulary lists from Wikipedia articles.

My students really like doing...

@ScrumpyEnglish Jan 7

Huntington Beach Library :: Literacy FUNraiser :: August 15

Literacy Volunteers

Huntington Beach Library

Literacy FUN Raiser

August 15

Noon - 8 pm

@ Lazy Dog Restaurant & Bar

Camarena Library :: Selected to Pilot Spanish Literacy Course Across California

Camarena Memorial Library To Increase Among Non-Literate Latino Adults Selected to Pilot Spanish Literacy Course Across California

Desert Review: 7.20.2016

The Camarena Memorial Library has been selected as one of nine libraries across California to join a pilot program – LeamosTM (Let’s Read) @ the Library. Centro Latino for Literacy (Centro Latino), a nonprofit organization headquartered in Los Angeles, launched the project to bring its online literacy course to the state’s non-literate Spanish speakers, which number 573,866 (2009-2011 ACS, PERE pooled file). The two-year pilot project is supported by a grant awarded by the James Irvine Foundation to Centro Latino to explore partnerships with public libraries. Greg Lucas, California State Librarian said, “In a state which gained a Latino plurality [in 2014], it seems at a minimum good common sense to encourage programs like Leamos. Without literacy skills in their native language, proficiency in English becomes significantly harder, if not impossible, to attain.”

Public libraries will incorporate the use of Leamos™ as an effective strategy to both promote reading at its most basic level and to effectively outreach to Spanish-speakers in their communities. “Leamos @ the Library is the portal for non-literate Spanish speakers to close both the basic and digital literacy gaps and to increase civic engagement,” stated AnaMaria Ruiz, Centro Latino Board Liaison, pointing out that a key initiative of the James Irvine Foundation is to increase civic engagement. “Learning to read and write is ground zero. Many students have described learning to read and write as being able to see after a lifetime of being blind – ‘Ya tengo ojos (Now I have eyes)’”.

Library literacy staff involved with the Southern California Library Literacy Network (SCLLN) have encountered this need in their communities, but have lacked the resources to address it. 

Meanwhile, Centro Latino for Literacy (Centro Latino) has been teaching basic literacy skills to Spanish speakers since 1991 and in 2004 transferred its course to an online platform to make it available beyond its Los Angeles classrooms. Now operating as a social enterprise, Centro Latino licenses its proprietary LeamosTM (Let's Read) Basic online course to workforce development organizations, parent engagement groups, community colleges, public libraries and more.  In March 2015 the James Irvine Foundation awarded a two-year grant to Centro Latino to deepen its impact statewide; Centro Latino chose to focus this effort on partnerships with public libraries.  They have recruited five libraries for year one of the project (Roseville, Salinas, Santa Barbara, Riverside, and Covina), and  the library systems which already partner with Centro Latino will also participate in this project to bring the broadest possible perspectives and learning experiences together.  The five libraries currently involved are:  Azusa, Los Angeles County-Huntington Park branch, Los Angeles City Library, Huntington Beach, and Anaheim. Together these ten libraries will pilot using Leamos Basic as a tool for public libraries to teach literacy skills to Spanish speakers and their experience will be documented and guide an additional ten California libraries to provide Spanish literacy in their communities in year two of the Irvine grant. 

SCLLN has designed this LSTA proposal as a companion piece to leverage the James Irvine Foundation award to Centro Latino to strengthen its focus on public libraries as a community anchor – a “zocalo” (public square) familiar to Latin America immigrants.

Prison Literacy :: Incarceration | Dyslexia | Inmates | Education | Reading | Library

Tweet – Tweeter – Tweetest

Superlatives from SCLLN

“Inmates enrolled in ed programs while incarcerated

were far less likely to return to prison.”

http://bit.ly/29R1BXm 

#projectliteracylab

@unreasonable Jul 16

New podcast!

We talk w/ founder of @asocialignition,

an org that helps people re-enter society after incarceration

http://ow.ly/aU1S3023s4O

@ALA_PLA Jul 8

Prison program lets inmate moms send their voices

http://buff.ly/1TQwVG3 

#literacy

#makingadifference

@readingtub Jun 2

Prison libraries and prison library programs

can build bridges to literacy, love of reading.

raamatuid May 19

Pop Culture Classroom is kicking off a new literacy program

at a CO prison using comics

http://pnsne.ws/1On60zd

@PNS_News May 13

Literacy can help fix America’s mass incarceration problem.

Here's how:

#ProjectLiteracy

@GOOD

@rewritinglives May 4

Pre-K To Prison Pipeline: A Case For Orton Gillingham!

#literacy #money #school2prison pipeline

#edchat #maedu #dyslexia #reading

#mapoli #maleg #massmillennials #educate

@1in5awareness Feb 29

LA Unified Reopens All District Libraries — But Forgets About the Books

LA Unified reopens all district libraries — but forgets about the books

LA School Report: 8.04.2016 by Mike Szymanski

For the first time since some school libraries were shuttered during budget cuts in 2008, all of the LA Unified school libraries will be back up and running when school starts again on August 16.

But according to the latest district estimates, the majority of students across Los Angeles will still be forced to rely on under-stocked library collections filled with outdated materials.

District numbers show that the average age of a book in a LAUSD library is now more than 20 years old, and that the books-per-student ratio is a shocking 35 percent below the state average. Even more dire: Most district schools have only a minimal budget to spend on bridging this gap—if they have any additional library funds at all.  READ MORE @

Little support for California’s public libraries

Sent to the Los Angeles Daily News, August 4.

Krashen: 8.04.2016

Julie Beth Todaro and Audrey Church are right when they argue that  "Shelving LAUSD’s school librarians would widen the learning gap," (August 3). Making the situation worse is data showing that California's public libraries are not well-supported.

California cities captured seven of the bottom ten places in the public library category of the recent (2015) "America's Most Literate Cities report." The report analyzes data from 77 cities with populations of 250,000 and above, and is based on number of branch libraries, holdings, circulation and staffing.

The bottom ten:

68. Los Angeles

69. Anaheim

72. Bakersfield

73. Sacramento

74. Chula Vista

75. Stockton

77. Santa Ana

Study after study has confirmed that library quality and professional library staffing are directly related to reading achievement.  More access to books, combined with helpful librarians, means more reading, and more reading means higher levels of reading achievement.

No wonder reading achievement is low in California.

Stephen Krashen

Professor Emeritus

University of Southern California

*America's Most Literate Cities reports @ literacyspace blog

Carlsbad Library :: Literacy Center Celebration

Learning Center Celebration

Learning Connection: Jul/Aug 2016

Approximately 72 tutors, learners, family and friends enjoyed Literacy Services’ annual celebration held May 22 at the Senior Center. This event was to congratulate our literacy learners on their accomplishments, recognize our volunteer tutors for their outstanding dedication and thank the City and Library leaders for their support. The program started with a slide show of our accomplishments during the year, followed by remarks from Council Member Schumacher and Library Director Heather Pizzuto. Tutors and learners then shared what the program means to them. Light refreshments and cupcakes followed the program.

Statistics shared at the event: 

 During the past fiscal year, volunteers contributed over 11,000 hours of their time helping learners reach their goals. Currently, 72 tutor/ learner pairs meet twice per week to work on reading, writing and computer skills.

 Learners set and achieved a range of goals, from reading an entire book for the first time to helping their children with homework. These skills lead to personal success that, in turn, creates a stronger community. Nearly half of the learners met a job-related goal, such as getting a job, which contributes to strengthening the local economy.

A Published Author

We would like to congratulate learner Nyla H. for being published and having her artwork chosen for the cover of the book, Messages, through the organization WE LEARN (Women Expanding Literacy Education Action Resource Network).  WE LEARN is a community promoting women’s literacy as a tool that fosters empowerment and equity for women.