Tabo is a participant in the MI Impact program at the Literacy Center, a contextualized English and healthcare career training program in partnership with Corewell Health.

At the Literacy Center of West Michigan, we help adults build the literacy and language skills they need to reach their goals. The Learner Spark is one way we celebrate that growth—it's our in-house magazine written by learners, for learners. Each story highlights the goals, challenges, and achievements of our learners in their own words. Read Olesya’s story here:

A groundbreaking partnership is redefining workforce development in West Michigan — and local media is taking notice. WZZM-13 recently featured the MI Impact program, an innovative collaboration led by the Literacy Center of West Michigan with Corewell Health and supported through the statewide MI Impact grant initiative. The segment highlighted how the program connects English-learning and immigrant adults to high-demand healthcare careers through a model that combines paid employment, English instruction, and credentialed training — helping to fill critical staffing gaps while opening doors to economic mobility.

When Jorge arrived from Cuba, he had a degree in electrical engineering but limited English. After taking Workplace English classes through his company, he advanced from the foundry floor to the R&D lab—eventually becoming Lab Manager.

With the Literacy Center of West Michigan, Praxis offers their employees customized ESL instruction aligned with shift schedules and business needs—helping employees strengthen communication skills, gain confidence, and step into new opportunities while boosting the company’s overall workforce.

We remember Ed for his quiet determination and deep commitment to literacy. Even in the face of serious illness, he continued to show up—ready to grow, connect, and learn.

Discover how our Family Activity Nights and Mornings foster meaningful connections, empower learners, and celebrate the joy of literacy in our diverse community.

The Literacy Center of West Michigan, in partnership with the Coalition on Adult Basic Education (COABE), invites you to join us in celebrating National Adult Education and Family Literacy Week, September 16-20, 2024.

WEST MICHIGAN – Today, the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity (LEO) announced more than $1 million of the $15 million MI Impact Grant program was awarded to Literacy Center of West Michigan. The grant, made available to Michigan’s large nonprofits who provide programming to lift people out of poverty, will allow the nonprofit to expand employment and training services to build a more skilled workforce in Kent County.

The National Center for Families Learning (NCFL) today announced the Literacy Center of West Michigan is the lead partner in creating a 60x30 Family Learning Community in West Michigan. In the months ahead, the Literacy Center of West Michigan will work with the NCFL, local families and more than 20 community partners to align programmatic goals and coordinate efforts to provide family literacy, engagement and leadership opportunities to historically underserved and marginalized families within the community. 

Yilin Wendland-Liu, Ph.D., the Literacy Center's Adult Tutoring Program director, has been selected as a W.K. Kellogg Foundation Community Leadership Network Fellow! This prestigious program is dedicated to empowering local leaders to drive transformational social change in their communities.

Blog Author: Iryna Kalenskaya , Literacy Center Learner 

"Hello.  My name is Iryna. I’m from Ukraine. I lived in a big industrial city of Zaporizhzhia.   I had a stable and peaceful life with my family. There are four of us. I have two kids. My daughter is 13 years-old and son is 11 years-old. I worked as a cosmetologist at the salon. I loved my job.

One day, the war comes into my country. It was the worsen day in my life.  Thousands of lives were destroyed. To protect my kids and my parents I decided to move to the USA. My husband stays in Ukraine. My sister lives in Grand Rapids. That’s why we came here.

ZEELAND, Mich. – December 2, 2022 – The Literacy Center of West Michigan today announced the completion of an onsite Customized Workplace English program at global design leader MillerKnoll. The 15-week class reduced English language literacy as a barrier for 11 MillerKnoll associates by providing contextual English language instruction using a tailored curriculum based on their specific workplace.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – May 26, 2023 – The Dollar General Literacy Foundation recently awarded the Literacy Center of West Michigan a $10,000 grant to support adult literacy. This local grant is a part of the Foundation’s largest, one-day literacy donation of more than $13 million throughout the 47 states in which Dollar General operates to support adult, family, and summer literacy programs.

Leaving home is never easy. Imagine making the difficult decision to leave behind everything that is familiar—people, places, culture, and language—to start fresh someplace new. This was the decision facing Yaina Mitchell in 2009. While she didn’t want to leave her home in the Dominican Republic, she felt that the United States would give her access to more opportunities and her young children a chance at a better life.