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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Victor Holt is the Latest Addition to the Board!
Victor is currently an Assistant Vice President, Financial Center Manager, for Fifth Third Bank's Main Office in Downtown Grand Rapids.
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The Literacy Center of West Michigan welcomes our newest board member, Monica Mendez from the Grand Rapids Chamber!
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GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – October 19, 2022 – The Literacy Center of West Michigan today announced it is the recipient of a $300,000 federal grant from the department of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). The funding will support the citizenship-based English as a second language (ESL) instruction and naturalization application services for 200 adults over a two-year period. The Literacy Center of West Michigan is partnering with Immigrant Connection at City Life Church to conduct the naturalization application services.
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GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – October 18, 2022 – The Literacy Center of West Michigan today announced that Maleika Joubert Brown, Ed.S., has been appointed to its 13-member board. Brown currently serves as the director of diversity, equity and inclusion for Grand Rapids Public Schools. Brown officially was voted in at the Literacy Center of West Michigan board meeting on Wednesday, September 28, for a term expiring September 27, 2025.
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The Literacy Center of West Michigan today announced it is the recipient of a $110,000 Wege Foundation grant. The funding is being used to expand its Family Literacy Program (FLP). The program teaches parents the language and literacy skills they need to support their child’s education and strengthen the connection between home and school.
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Stephen Osborn understands the challenges of navigating a new country. Born in remote South America to missionary parents, Stephen did not live in the United States until he was 16. As he wrote in his original Literacy Center volunteer application in 2015, that experience gave him “a special place in my heart for people learning English.”
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Latesha Lipscomb is a Grand Rapids change agent. As a community activist, entrepreneur, public speaker, and mother, Latesha has made it her mission to build bridges and create inclusive, welcoming environments in her hometown.
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Minnie Morey is the kind of person who sees a need, steps up, and leads the way toward addressing it. For decades now, Minnie has championed the rich gifts brought to West Michigan by the immigrants and refugees from Asian countries. As a volunteer, an activist, and Executive Director of the West Michigan Asian American Association (WMAAA), Minnie has made it her mission to help remove the barriers that New Americans face in this country. George Aquino, Vice President/Managing Director of AHC+ Hospitality, writes of Minnie, “this petite woman is a GIANT in the Asian American community in the state.”
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The Literacy Center is partnering with several businesses and organizations in West Michigan to provide English as a Second Language (ESL) training for its employees.
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The Literacy Center of West Michigan's Community Literacy Initiative (CLI) is winding down, but its collaborative work on literacy remains.
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The Literacy Center of West Michigan has been named as a finalist in the U.S. Department of Education’s $750,000 Rethink Adult Education Challenge, a national competition to advance pre-apprenticeship programs. The organization is one of five finalists from Michigan and the only one from outside metro Detroit. The Literacy Center’s proposal creates a career pathway for Latinas to enter the mechanical, electrical and plumbing trades by providing English instruction, workplace readiness and skills training.
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In August, the Literacy Center of West Michigan welcomed Dr. Yilin Wendland-Liu as the new director of the Adult Tutoring Program (ATP). In her role, she leads the founding program of the Literacy Center—one that is designed to connect community members who have a desire to improve their English and literary skills with volunteer tutors. The pairs work one-on-one to address the learner’s personal goals.
Having been a college professor for several years, teaching Mandarin and Chinese literature, history, culture and, at times, East Asia culture, Yilin understands the challenges and successes adult learners face in learning a new language. Speaking of her experience with college students learning a second language, she says, “I think one of the most rewarding moments for me as a language teacher was seeing how some of the students came in with zero background in Chinese language, in Mandarin, and then towards the end of the year, being able to conduct a conversation, speak the language, engage in daily conversation, write simple compositions, and understand.”
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In the summer of 2019, hundreds of families gathered each week in local parks for family-friendly literacy events. Special guests read stories aloud, local ice cream and food vendors gave away summer treats, and every child who attended received a brand new, age-appropriate book each week. By all accounts, Storytime in the Park was a huge success.
The idea for Storytime in the Park came many years earlier from Barbara Lubic, a professor at Grand Valley State University. She and her friend Barbara Bush—a local ice cream shop owner—wanted to do something to celebrate the parks and the community in the summer. They decided to give away books and ice cream at weekly summer gatherings in Garfield Park. What began with 50 attendees 11 years ago has turned into something far greater.
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As summer draws to a close, the Literacy Center is in the midst of planning for our most unusual—and important—year of programming yet. Because we know that COVID-19 has only deepened the disparities caused by low literacy, we have pushed hard to innovate in this new environment so that we can not only sustain our support of adult literacy, but expand and improve how we meet this crucial need in our community.
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The Literacy Center is taking the following steps to limit the spread of the COVID-19 virus:
- The Literacy Center's office is closed at this time. All staff are working remotely and accessible via email. With general questions, contact info@literacycenterwm.org.
- Our Spellebration event originally planned for March 26, 2020 will be a virtual event held on June 4, 2020.
- Remote learning resources will be posted on social media and sent via email as they become available.
We will continue to keep our website and social media updated. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact us at info@literacycenterwm.org or via Facebook.
El Literacy Center ha tomado las siguientes medidas para limitar la propagación de COVID-19:
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