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Intergenerational Literacy Project
Partnerships for Literacy Success
Community Literacy & Writing Projects
Accidental Vestments
Book Clubs
Bookmaking
Books for Humanity
ESL Classes
Literacy Through Poetry
Kids At Work
National Writing Project
Poetry in Motion
The Wordshop Project
The Writing Mentor Project
YouthOn Restorative Justice
Research @ the Center for Community Literacy
Community Partners & Local Literacy Networks
Literacy Network of Larimer County
Upcoming Reading and Writing Events
Literacy-Related Positions Available
The Center for Community Literacy Key Initiatives
Partnerships for Literacy Success
Partnerships for Literacy Success (PLS) seeks to expand opportunities available to the English Language Learners in the Fort Collins community.
PLS is a partnership between two Colorado State University Projects: the Center for Community Literacy and Community Organizing to Reach Empowerment (CORE). CORE is a community-based, family-oriented learning center which provides opportunities for individuals to build on their strengths and develop their capacity for addressing perennial urban problems. For more information about CORE, visit www.cahs.colostate.edu/CORE/.
PLS, like CORE, is community-based, community-focused, and community-directed.
Through Partnerships for Literacy Success, we hope to continually enhance the services already provided at CORE. Specifically, we seek to provide:
- English Language Learners an increased number of courses on-site.
- English Language Learners individualized tutoring in reading and writing.
- English Language Learners access to relevant literacy materials.
- English Language Learners with the opportunity to be heard by a broader audience through publishing.
- Volunteers and staff members at CORE with the training and resources they need for professional development.
CORE Course Offerings
CORE offers now, or hopes to offer in the near future, courses in the following:
- citizenship
- functional literacies (life skills)
- financial literacies
- computer/internet literacies
- public safety
- relationships, parenting skills, and health. For the latter, PLS hopes to partner with SALUD, a primary health care service for impoverished populations
- after-school programs are also available for youth
All courses aim to engage the whole student by focusing on the literacies that the students see as relevant and useful. The PLS approach to education is one of engaged democracy: Teachers and students design literacy projects and refine curricula together; hence, all participants develop a sense of ownership and have the opportunity to become engaged in the program's development and success.
Individualized Tutoring
We hope to offer CORE students the opportunity to receive individualized support and educational instruction. We envision a Writing Room staffed by volunteer tutors who could be available by appointment and during walk-in hours.
Access to Texts
In an effort to increase access to texts, the Center for Community Literacy donated over 800 books to CORE in the summer of 2007 as the starting inventory for the free bookstore now housed at CORE. In addition, another local literacy-promotion program, Books for Humanity, moved 1500 books to the CORE facility. Our hope is that the new bookstore brings Habitat families to CORE and allows community members to bring more books into their homes.
Publishing
We hope to give CORE students the opportunity to publish their writing for a broader audience. We envision an anthology of CORE students' writing which would be distributed in Northern Colorado at no charge in order to increase public access to the narratives of this population.
Volunteer and Staff Professional Development
Through PLS, we plan to give volunteers and staff members at the CORE facility access to a research library stocked with scholarship on adult learning, literacies, and teaching English as a second language. In addition, we hope to provide intensive training workshops for the professional development of the literacy workers at CORE.