Overview of The Literacy Council of Mercer County
The Literacy Council of Mercer County
In 1986, in the wake of local factories closing, we began the Greenville Literacy Council as a tutoring center to help unemployed workers and other adults acquire the reading, math and spelling skills they needed to find work and help their children with homework. But within one year of our opening, we realized a basic skills tutoring center was not enough. We needed to offer English as a Second Language to fthe variety of immigrants who were settling in Mercer County. And so we added an ESL program to our curricula.
Within another year, we realized a basic tutoring and an ESL program was not enough. Many students needed to earn a GED but the nearest GED class was 16 to 20 miles away, a short distance but long for students with unreliable transportation. Thus, we added GED classes to our offerings.
As we worked with learners through the years, we saw a need for additional program:
- Even Start: A program that works with families who have a child 7 years old or younger. Even Start provides adult education for parents, parenting skills for parents, activities for parents to use to help their minds grow and a preschool program.
- Living Room Learning: A home-based individual tutoring program for Mercer County residents who are unable to attend a class.
- Move Up: A program for welfare clients who want to develop better educational skills that will help them find jobs that can support their families
Relocating the Dislocated Worker: This program will begin in September 2010. The Literacy Council will assess the students’ educational skills, while the Mercer County Career Link assesses them for occupational aptitudes and interests. Then based on the collected information, The Literacy Council will set up an employability plan that will give them the work-place and basic skills they need, help them earn a GED and enter a vocational training program provided by funds available through the Career Link.
Over the next three years, our goals include creating a work-place based program that enable employed workers to progress in their current job, be promoted, or, if the plant is downsizing, enable them to find jobs in another occupational industry.