La Plaza Central

Thanks to Karen Schmidt of Lincoln Literacy Council for the great shots of El Centro Family Literacy and West Lincoln Elementary Family Literacy.

Enjoy!

Yesterday we traveled to West Lincoln Elementary to attend a press conference on the Toyota Family Literacy Programs. Speakers included President and Founder of the National Center for Family Literacy Sharon Darling, LPS Superintendent Dr. Susan Gourley, and literacy participants Roberto Bernabé and Martha Matamoros. All four offered touching monologues for the ears of the well-attended gymnasium, and many familiar faces—from our students all the way up to administrators—proffered a smile.

Update: a quick thanks to Peggy over at LPS for sending us the following:

Channel 8 spent one hour at Everett Elementary today. They interviewed Jadi (Miller), Elizabeth Montes, and a parent. They also filmed PAC Time (Parent And Child Time) in a first grade room and…the adult education room…The segment about Family Literacy should run tonight at 6 & 10 for the feature.

Shout out to everyone who helps with family literacy!

There are four new faces on our Board of Directors, and I’d like to take a moment on behalf of staffers to welcome them and wish them a fruitful year:

Staci Bell, Wesleyan

Susanne Cramer, Lincoln Council on Alcoholism and Drugs, Inc.

Rebecca Gonzalez, Nebraska Appleseed

René Monarez, Cornhusker Council, Boy Scouts of America

And of course we musn’t forget to wish the same for the veterans: Mr Brown, Ms Cruz, Mr Diaz, Ms Egan, Ms Lieske, Mr Oliver, Ms Ordoñez, Mr Preciado, and Ms Rodriguez.

Cheers.

Yes, on it’s way.

March 20th, 8pm at the DelRay ballroom in the Historic Haymarket. $25 gets you in—and if you fancy one—a free tango lesson one hour prior to the start of the event. Come to El Centro for tickets, get them from one of us, or buy them at the door day-of.

Bring your money clips, for there will be live and silent auctions replete with unique and sundry items—some procured from foreign lands.

All are welcome…just try to look snappy.

And remember, drink when it’s for charity.

See? Told you I would write more often.

Tonight will be our second Monday preparing taxes as a VITA site for the IRS. Boy is it fun. Actually, last week went rather well compared to last  year. We have that year under our belts and have a more defined idea on how to manage the program. Just got the rest of my forms in the mail, so I’ll get to do my own taxes one day when I feel like it.

Also new: Hartley Elementary opened up their own Family Literacy Program just this afternoon and we are pleased to be a part of it. They have us down Fridays for clases de computación. Our three other classes are going well — today in the Migrant Family Literacy Program, I had students copying a Garcia Lorca poem, complete with instruction on how to enter accents and and upside-down exclamation points. Easier than you think (on a Mac!).

Info on Wine!Chocolate!Tango!…soon.

Disculpenme, por favor. It has been too long since my last post. Lists of duties at our agency have grown and lists of names working here haven’t. I’ll share some of the former list with you: we are conducting a dual-component Migrant Family Literacy program three days a week with LPS. We’re working with Hartley Elementary for their upcoming Family Literacy program and still work with Everett and West Lincoln families. A new Wednesday evening computer course opened up and the next ELL course will soon follow. We are a VITA tax prep site (thank you, volunteers!). The educational documentary project with the Dept of Ed is still in full swing. And this is just what I’ve been doing — I can’t even speak on what others are up to. Oh yeah, and blogging. I promise I’ll do better.

Stay tuned…

Thanks to the scads of volunteers, all gifts from Operation Santa Claus and Toys for Tots are wrapped! Based on an unscientific study conducted in my brain that looked at unofficial metrics on population, hours worked, numbers served, coffee imbibed, trainings endured, I conclude that El Centro’s community impact is on the rise. We have more help, more programs, and more collaboration than years past.

Come by our Fiesta de Navidad on Monday to see what it’s all about.

Also, photos of the fun:

Thanks again to those who helped!

We return to the office after 72 hours of office-free bliss. I spent the greater chunk of that time video editing and taking breaks from video editing. I return today to the task of writing a basic computer class curriculum for a new program at El Centro! Once again LPS is continuing their push for family literacy and contracted us for a new migrant family program to run from January through May. There will be an ELL component and a basic computer class, the former taught by SCC and the latter by yours truly.

Oh, and we gotta get ready for the Fiesta de Navidad!

Last Wednesday marked the final day to sign up for Operation Santa Claus and Toys for Tots. This means one thing: our Fiesta de Navidad can’t be far off! Gifts will come (help us wrap them PLEASE), snow may fall, and then Papa Noel is coming to town December 21st from 3 to 8pm to celebrate the holiday. Come on down for food, games, presents and more!

What do you want for Christmas?

I’ve been recently more bothered by the ‘learn English’ issue we have with  immigrants. The bothersome part is that many people stop after that single notion, that single command. If we unpack the notion we find arguments for assimilation and civic duty, a vehicle for access the American Dream…but we also get things like this or even this. I’ll argue that the individuals in these examples stopped after this notion (if not before, given their spelling aptitude). The trouble manifest in not further exploring a notion is ostensibly that nothing will come of it. Is ‘learn English’ a viable notion? Of course, and it’s one I latch onto. But I’ll argue that instead of presenting some beguiling, paradoxical ‘learn English’ picket sign, we act on the notion.

Enter our agency, where we recently developed a free, weekly course called Hablemos Español which provides enrichment tools aimed at keeping Spanish skills shared between the generations of a Hispanic immigrant family. Pair that with programs like Family Literacy, ELL, and job search assistance, among others, and we’ve rounded the edges to a complete package for education, integration and assimilation, while still stressing the importance of hanging on to culture and heritage.

So if you see a man who you know or assume to know doesn’t speak English and feel as though he needs to, don’t put a sign in his face (one he wouldn’t be able to read anyhow?), send him our way. We will help him.