Everyone's working not only together, but on their own projects as well.  We have increased our student enrollment.  We have more placed workers and volunteers constantly working toward reaching anyone in need of our services.  Our library is growing.  That means more time and effort to keep it in order and inventoried.  Since we are now serving Hot Spring, Clark and Saline Counties, each will have an office location.  That means more staff to man and tutor at those locations.  Here are more details we hope will help you keep up to date on what is new with READ and recent happenings:
						READ Haunted House 2009 was a great success. We owe so much to our sponsors for faithfully backing us, especially during these hard economic times.  And our volunteers, wow, there are no words to express the gratitude we have for every speck of time and work done by so many.  People went way above and beyond the "call of duty" for our cause.  Our customers brave the cool weather, precipitation and lines for a good scare.  Thank you to all!  We had a workshop to train inmate tutors spring '09 at Ouachita River Correctional Unit (ORCU).  The inmates are trained, we assess the inmate students, then ORCU literacy clerks match the student/tutor team and schedule their literacy sessions in reading and math.  Arkansas Literacy Councils (ALC) received a foundation grant that was divided between service-providing literacy programs in the state.  That empowered us to make this decision -- Our Board of Directors voted to expand into Saline and Clark Counties as well as continuing to serve Hot Spring County.  Saline County Literacy Council closed and Clark County does not have a literacy program.  As the READ Program, our services can be easily identified in all three counties while remaining Literacy Council of Hot Spring County, Inc. for business purposes.  We are working with Clark and Saline County Adult Education programs.
				A meeting with staff of Henderson State University in Arkadelphia, our staff, the Clark Co. Adult Ed. Director, the Executive Director of ALC and a local legislator in November.  We will work toward common goals in this meeting such as a tutoring/office location and volunteer opportunities.  Baring Cross Church in Arkadelphia provided a location to train our "first batch" of Clark County tutors in September.  We have several tutoring locations ready in Benton/Saline.  Our next workshop may be in Malvern.  We have tutors waiting to be trained in all three counties, so Malvern may serve as a halfway point for those who need to travel.  A workshop is being scheduled to train tutors in Paron, AR (Saline).  The Paron tutors will work through a Central Arkansas Development Council (CADC) program.  We have received several student referrals through the Dollar General referral program as well as volunteers through VolunteerMatch.com.  We have lots to do from training tutors and finding office locations to meeting with local businesses to recruit partners.  This expansion is very exciting.  Services should be easily accessible to learners in all three counties as soon as possible.  Our program owes A LOT to the staff of Clark County Adult Education and Saline County Adult Education.  They are graciously providing us with all sorts of resources, and not because they have to.  Instead of competition, they offer us cooperation and collaboration.  We are very fortunate and grateful to have them involved in our endeavors.  Thank you so much! Once again, ALC has come to the rescue of local literacy programs.  They placed AmeriCorps members through the Arkansas Service Commission into programs requesting those positions.  We have two AmeriCorps members that tutor, recruit students and tutors and do training in Malvern.  Corey is in his second year contract and Deborah is in her first, both ending Sept. 30, 2010.  (AmeriCorps are placed volunteers that receive a living allowance, not a paycheck.) ALC won a one-year contract with The National Service Commission to place AmeriCorps Recovery members into literacy councils using stimulus money.  The contract year began July 1.  These AmeriCorps Recovery members will focus on capacity building, partnerships and recruitment from every possible resource in their area.  We were provided with two half-time positions.  Our program pays a percentage of all the AmeriCorps' living allowance.  Tim is the Recovery AmeriCorps in Benton (Saline) and Joann is located in Arkadelphia (Clark). English as a Second Language (ESL) is an instructional method that uses English speaking tutors.  Tutors can teach English to speakers of other languages without knowledge of each student's native language.  It works!  With the rise of non-English speaking people in the U.S., there is a greater need for ESL programs.  It is a rewarding challenge to work with an ESL student (and we always have a need for ESL tutors).  ¿Usted habla español?  We currently have one ESL student enrolled who meets with her tutor at the office.  A local church is sharing rooms with us to hold an ESL class Thursday evening.  In that group, we have had as many as twenty-three learners, but the average class size is about fifteen.  There are four tutors for that class using small group and one-to-one instructional methods. One of our two Malvern AmeriCorps, Corey, has recently started tutoring at Omega Technical Violator's Program (OTVP or Omega).  Residents spend sixty days at Omega.  Although that does not allow a lot of time to work with a student, Corey can make a difference with the residents he is matched with through Omega's GED program.  They meet one-to-one.  Upon exit from Omega, each resident is released or sent to another correctional setting and is exited from our program.  Corey, we appreciate you tackling such a complicated and challenging endeavor! Last but not least, we are very fortunate to have Vickie placed with us as an AARP Enrollee.  We were given another "slot" for an enrollee through stimulus funds, Deborah.  We hired her as an AmeriCorps within months after she started with AARP.  Many thanks go to the AARP Foundation staff for all their help and patience.
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