The Literacy Project delivered laptops to students who had no other way to access their classes - now online due to COVID-19.
Like schools across the country, The Literacy Project moved to remote instruction this Spring, to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. Our teachers and students read books together on video calls, solved math problems over the phone, and exchanged poems that inspired them via text messages. Here’s one:
Dreams
By Langston Hughes
Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.
Many of The Literacy Project's adult students struggle to meet basic needs, so our first step was to connect our students with the support they needed. Once we knew that they had safe housing, food and health care, we moved on to algebra and essays.
Our teachers worked quickly to identify and solve the barriers to learning that students were facing. Some students worked best with paper and pencil, and for them we purchased over 100 workbooks for reading, vocabulary, math, and HiSET preparation. Others wanted to work online but did not have reliable access to a computer. With the help of the Tim Gens Memorial Scholarship Fund, we were able to distribute 35 laptop computers. These computers were given as gifts to students who demonstrated both a need for the assistance and a willingness to continue their education online. We are pleased that these scholarship computers will stay with the students as they move into their next steps, whether it’s college, job training, careers, or greater involvement in their families and communities.
Looking to the Fall 2020, we plan to begin the year with online classes. We’ll resume in-person instruction as soon as it is safe to do so. With that in mind, we are currently accepting donations for our computer scholarship fund, so that the next cohort of students will have the support they need for academic success.