Elon's literacy initiative for young readers is expanding to serve parents with ESL courses at Alamance Community College.
Beginning this fall, Alamance Community College will offer English as a Second Language (ESL), GED and financial literacy classes for parents of children in Elon University’s It Takes a Village Project. The parent outreach encompasses the two-generational approach of the Village Project. Elon University recently received a $1 million grant from the Oak Foundation to support the expanded work of the project.
Elon University will provide $75,000 ($15,000 each year for the next 5 years) to ACC to support the parent classes. As with all aspects of the Village Project, the parent classes will also be provided at no cost to the families.
ACC’s Claire Ricci, Director of Academic and Career Readiness, and Julie Spomer, ESL Coordinator, are developing the program with coordinating with Dr. Jean Rattigan-Rohr, founder and director of the Village Project and Elon University’s Executive Director of Community Partnerships.
“We are really excited to renew this relationship with Elon University’s Expanded Village,” said Ricci. “The work they do is truly outstanding. We are looking forward to enhancing the family literacy component of this project by providing targeted instruction for the parents, with the goal of enabling them to help their children with their homework, as well as furthering their own goals and career plans.”
During the 2013-14 school year, ACC offered an ESL class for parents in the after-school program, which proved very successful. This new grant provides an opportunity to renew that program, with the added components of financial literacy and career preparation incorporated into the ESL classes.
“This two-generationally aspect of our Village work is really important, our families are eager to begin, and I am looking forward to seeing how it unfolds with help from our ACC colleagues,” said Dr. Rattigan-Rohr.
The classes are expected to begin for the parents Thursday evenings in October, reportedly on-site at Blessed Sacrament School. Alamance Community College has had an ongoing partnership with that school offering ESL classes since last year.
Launched in 2008, the It Takes a Village Project began as an after-school reading/tutoring project designed to connect Elon’s School of Education students with youngsters who find reading daunting. The Village Project uses a collaborative approach to address reading difficulties faced by many students. That collaboration involves the active participation of Elon’s School of Education, Elon students, faculty and staff, in-service teachers, various community partners and most important, parents and other family members.