bright and hardworking. He had very, very low self-esteem and
low confidence and was just frustrated. Even though he knew
what he wanted to do with his life he would literally say, ‘I’m stu-pid
and I’m never going to get there.’… It took a lot of work. He
made it happen.”
The student eventually got a job he wanted, bought a house, got
married and earned several promotions, Tomkinson says.
Literacy skills are survival tools, Tomkinson says, without which
people may have trouble knowing their address, understanding
emergency caution signs, knowing which service station pump is
for diesel and reading restaurant menus and medication labels.
“If you don’t have that knowledge or that skill or access, think of
how limited your world is,” Tomkinson says.
Literacy council partners include Cape Fear Community College,
which offers programs covering GED prep, Adult Basic Education,
English as a Second Language, adult high school and compensatory
education for adults with disabilities — all free through a basic skills
grant for students 16 and older.
The college serves about 3,600 basic skills students, says Erica
Talbert, CFCC’s basic skills director. CFCC also administers GED
tests that cover reading, writing, science, social studies and math.
Due to a change in ownership, GED testing will soon transition
from paper and pencil to computerized tests this year, and next
year it will be more expensive — $120 rather than $35 — and
include more strenuous content.
“This will be a big update,” Talbert says.
Helping Give the Gift of Literacy
Volunteer tutors must be at least 18 and have a high school
diploma, and they can take an orientation class and attend tutor-training
workshops. Many are former teachers and retirees, and
some are University of North Carolina Wilmington students.
Students and tutors pair up and schedule sessions at the council,
libraries, fire halls, recreation centers and other public places, says
Debra Yaw, the council’s intake coordinator.
“The friendships that take place are just phenomenal,” Yaw says.
People’s struggles with literacy can sometimes go unnoticed, says
Linda Lytvinenko, the council’s executive director.
“Our job is to reach as many of those people as we can so their
lives can become less of a challenge,” Lytvinenko says.
“I’m so glad that I stopped,” Mable Jones says of that day she
first visited the literacy council. “I just want to see all my efforts of
going in and holding on, you know, pressing on — I just want to
see what the end result is.”
“In a way there’s not an end to this,” Linda Thomas says. “It will
carry on forever.”
For more information visit:
Cape Fear Literacy Council – www.cfliteracy.org
Cape Fear Community College – http://cfcc.edu/ce/basic_skills/
index.html
22
WBM march 2013
by
Michelle
Saxton