Our visit to the Literacy Center in New Haven taught us a few things

Some people who need and could be helped by this column won’t be reading it because they can’t.

In the United States, an estimated 30 million people older than 16 are not able to read any better than an average elementary school child.

Thirty-five years ago, at a church in Hamden, Betsy Gumbart started Literacy Volunteers of Greater New Haven. Recently, I paid a visit to the Literacy Resource Center at Science Park, which is the home of four important nonprofit agencies:

-Literacy Volunteers of Greater New Haven

-New Haven Reads Community Book Bank

-The Greater New Haven Literacy Coalition

-Concepts for Adaptive Learning

Their mutual goal is to promote improved literacy levels in Greater New Haven, something that is urgently needed since 30 percent of the adult population in New Haven County is at the lowest level of literacy.

Activities at the Resource Center include the recruiting and training of volunteer tutors, free tutoring for children and adults, computer training classes for adults, as well as computer literacy training for adults and children.

Free books are provided to all families who come to the Resource Center. When I visited the center, I was warmly greeted and shown around by Doss Venema, executive director, and Betty Brumberg, program manager, and then I sat in on two classes; one at a very beginning level, where adults with the help of their patient volunteer tutor were learning the basic sounds for each letter.

One man in this class confided to me that he was good with his hands and could fix anything, but was unable to find work because although born in this country, his English skills were so poor he could not fill out a job application.

In the second class, at a more advanced level, two tutors were helping students break down sentences into phrases and to figure out the meaning of more complex words.

One student said he was here so that he could help his children with their homework; another wanted to get her high school equivalency diploma. Imagine the courage it must take for adults in their 30s and 40s to admit to inadequacies in their reading abilities and to come for help.

Watching them struggle to learn and encourage one another, and to observe the skill and patience of their volunteer instructors, was touching and inspirational. Is there a greater gift you can give to anyone than to open up the world of books to them?

A separate, but equally important program, English as a Second Language for the foreign born, is offered through the Literacy Volunteer program and through the adult education programs in most communities.

Although this has to be one of the most rewarding volunteer opportunities open to men and women of any age, literacy volunteers are still very needed. Training only requires a total of 12 hours, and a tutor can choose to teach for a few hours each week at one of more than 39 local tutoring locations.

No skill is more crucial to help people support themselves and their families, to give children a good start and to help in fostering engaged citizens and creating stronger, healthier communities.

There is a close correlation between adult illiteracy and crime. Literacy is essential to eradicate poverty at home and abroad and address gender inequality. (Two-thirds of the 800 million adults illiterate in their native language are women.) The ability to read and write is the basis for all other education.

To donate books to New Haven Reads, go to www.newhavenreads.org or call 203-752-1923.

To inquire about becoming a tutor or a student in the literacy classes, go to www.lvagnh.org or call 203-776-5899.

If you can READ, you can HELP!

- Article by Jean Cherni, founder of the retirement advisory service, Senior Living Solutions. Contact her at jeancherni@sbcglobal.net or 15 The Ponds at Hotchkiss Grove, Branford 06405.

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