Thursday, October 21, 2010

The Literacy Assistance Center of New York

The state of New York offers multiple options for literary assistance.  Without a question, New York sees some of the highest school discontinuation rates in the country. Thankfully, literary assistance programs such as the Literacy Assistance Center of New York is a tool that can be utilized to help kids and adults battle for educational success.

The Literary Assistance Center of New York, or the LAC, offers help to not only just high school students.  The help this organization offers is quite wide ranged.  This organization assists Adult students who want to find free classes in reading, writing, and speaking English or information on getting their GED.  It helps Literacy instructors who want to become more effective teachers.  Program managers who want to build a stronger literacy program.  Parents who want to help their children become better learners.  Policymakers who need information from the literacy field to inform their decisions.  All New Yorkers who want to participate in building a more vibrant, prosperous community

One unique factor of The Literacy Assistance Center of New York is that they offer opportunities for professional development.  As stated below: 

The LAC offers professional development and technical assistance for literacy instructors and program managers who want to improve their practice. We serve programs for adults and adolescents that offer basic education in reading, writing, and math; English for speakers of other languages (ESOL); civics and citizenship; and GED preparation. Our professional development in family literacy focuses on programs that work with parents and children to support learning and scholastic achievement. Our health literacy initiative creates partnerships and offers training to instructors so that learners can lead healthier lives. Our instructional technology programs show instructors and program managers how to integrate distance learning, computers, and multimedia tools into instruction. Our Professional Development Center, which includes a library and a computer lab, provides a wealth of resources for literacy instruction.

They also emphasise tremendously on health literacy.  Healthy People 2010 defines health literacy as The degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions. These are the skills that all people need to, for instance, find their way to the right place in a hospital, fill out medical and insurance forms, and communicate with health care providers.

There is also an influential section on family literacy, as stated in the following.  The Literacy, Art and Families project is a unique collaboration between the Literacy Assistance Center and the vibrant cultural institutions of NYC. Through this project we build partnerships between literacy programs and cultural institutions to provide culturally and linguistically rich learning opportunities for children and adults. The project enjoys the support of the Altman Foundation and the Museum of Modern Art.

Overall, The Literacy Assistance Center of New York appears to be one of the most unique, and one of the most active literacy success organization that I have researched so far.  This organization is fully dedicated to the success of each individual, and it intends to do so by developing unique and unsought of characteristics to incorporate into the success of literacy.  It has proven itself to be very successful, and remains to be one of the most successful literacy success programs so far.


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