The article below appeared in Hall County Magazine, May/June 2009
Give the Gift of Reading - Alliance for Literacy
by Dorothy Shinafelt
Given that you picked up this magazine, you must be able to read the articles for general pleasure or to absorb desired information. What if you could not? Can you imagine being unable to read a menu, browse the newspaper, or pull your child or grandchild on your lap to read them a story? This is a way of life for many residents of Hall County and they suffer daily from the embarrassment that this causes. We know that illiteracy, or lack of education, is at the root of most ills of a community – whether it be poverty, violence, gangs, drugs, or health issues.
The Gainesville/Hall County Alliance for Literacy is Hall County’s non-profit umbrella agency for all literacy concerns that affect our community. However, the primary focus of the Alliance is adult education. Since 1989, the Alliance has served as the advisory board to the Adult Learning Center (ALC), whose fiscal agent is Lanier Technical College. The ALC provides FREE educational programs for anyone 16 years and older who have not graduated from high school or whose native language is not English. Services provided include literacy instruction, basic skills, GED preparation, and English as a Second Language. The ALC is also the official GED Testing Center for Hall County. Classes are offered in the daytime and evening at the ALC, as well as at numerous satellite locations throughout the area to meet the growing needs in our community. Typically around 2,500-3,000 students are served each year and over 200 GED’s are attained.
The Gainesville-Hall County Alliance for Literacy’s mission statement is: To increase the literacy rates in our community by promoting education for adults and promoting community efforts to raise literacy levels among families. We are committed to breaking the cycle of family illiteracy and to helping each individual reach his or her potential.
A gentleman came to the Alliance for Literacy last year, after working at an area mill for 60 years, unable to read. In fact, he tested at a zero level. Within a year, and with a lot of hard work on his part, we were able to bring him up to an 11th grade level. Our classes provide the tools, instruction, and most importantly, the compassion that most of our students have never received. The changes in this man over the course of this time were monumental. He climbed out of his shell and became more confident with each passing week. He began devouring any written word and told our reading specialist that if he could learn to read he could do anything. This new skill opened up a world for him that he never knew existed.
In December 1994, Hall County became the 23rd community designated as a Certified Literate Community Program (CLCP) participant in Georgia. The CLCP is a statewide initiative, created by Governor Zell Miller, to substantially decrease the numbers of under-educated adults in the community. On January 8, 2004 the Gainesville/Hall County Alliance for Literacy received a resolution from the Georgia Board of Technical and Adult Education recognizing and commending them for achieving the designation of Certified Literate Community. Hall County almost doubled its goal and served 24,972 individuals in less than 9 years. Furthermore, 2,137 GED’s were attained during this period. The GCAL Evaluation Team recognized the Gainesville/Hall County Alliance for Literacy as a model of collaboration and community wide support saying, ”they have taken the original CLCP concept and developed
it beyond all original hopes and dreams for the program.”
The Alliance is also a proud United Way of Hall County partner agency. Many ask us what literacy really is. Most of us have spent our lives believing that literacy was simply the ability to read and write. If you could read, you were literate and if you could not, you were illiterate. We now know, however, that literacy is not the product, but a means to a better life for a person, their family, their employer, and the community in which they live.
In 1991, the National Literacy Act defined literacy as: An individual’s ability to read, write, and speak in English, and compute and solve problems at levels of proficiency necessary to function on the job and in society, to achieve one’s goals, and to develop one’s knowledge and potential. English literacy often translates across borders also. Marion came to Gainesville from Germany to accompany her husband who was contracted by one of our local industries. Because her visa did not allow her to obtain employment, she decided to dedicate her time and energy to improving her own skills in the areas of English and a GED. She enrolled in the English as a Second Language (ESOL) program at our Adult Learning Center, where her pleasant personality and strong work ethic endeared her to her teachers and classmates.
After studying English for more than a year, she set her sights on obtaining the GED. Realizing the economic situation in her native land was similar to our situation here, where many jobs are moving to other countries, she reasoned that the GED in English would give her an advantage in the job market when she returned home. She entered the GED program with the same dedication and tenacity she had brought to her English studies. She spent many hours working on her math skills. Her hard work paid off when she obtained her GED in October. When she and her husband return to their native Germany, she will take with her the academic and language skills that will give her a decided advantage when she reenters the labor forces.
In the United States, the National Assessment of Adult Literacy found that 30 million adults across America do not have basic literacy skills, meaning they can't use a television guide to discern what time a program airs or compare ticket prices for an event. Another 63 million adults possess only basic literacy skills, meaning they can't find a location on a map or determine the vitamin content in food by looking at reference materials.
Based on the 2000 Census, 29.5% of adults 25 years and older do not have an educational attainment level of at least high school graduation. According to this report, 86,821 residents in Hall County are 25 years and older, which indicates that 25,613 of our residents could benefit from the services supplied by these programs.
High school graduation has a tangible impact, not only on the individual who achieves this milestone or fails, but also on the community in which he or she lives. Those students who do not complete high school are likely to face problems in three major areas: reduced income, unemployment, and barriers to future employment and educational opportunities.
These problems, when multiplied across the number of individuals in a community who have not completed high school, have a compounded effect on the community as a whole in the form of: reduced revenue to local businesses, increased cost to support unemployed and underemployed citizens, and the need to import college and technical school graduates in order to fill higher-requirement local jobs.
All of the Alliance’s recruitment and public awareness campaigns are important tools in attracting the adult learner, but to be a truly literate community we must break the cycle of family illiteracy. We must keep our children in school, make sure they are getting all the support they need in school, and make sure that children are exposed to a variety of reading materials, both at home and in school. If we truly want to make a dent in the illiteracy problems in this community, we must work together to identify those people who need assistance, break down barriers such as child care and transportation, and provide funding to those programs which exist, and those that are being developed. Perhaps one day we can say that Hall County truly is a literate community, and each of our citizens is able to enjoy all that our county offers.
The Alliance does not receive any state or federal funding and must depend on the generosity of the community and on our fundraising activities. Our primary fundraisers are the annual Brain-Teasing, Crowd-Pleasing, Good Time Romp of a Spelling Bee, held in the spring, and our Read-A-Thon, sponsored by the Hall County Book Exchange held in the fall. Along with raising funds to help support literacy programs we also recruit volunteers to tutor our students.
For an entire community to be literate, everyone MUST get involved. For more information on The Alliance, please contact Dorothy W. Shinafelt, Executive Director, at (770) 531-4337.
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The Alliance serves as the Advisory board for the Adult Learning Center, whose fiscal agent is 