National Adult Education and Family Literacy Week is September 18-24.

RESERVE — Education is the foundation of community well-being and literacy serves as an early indicator of future participation in the criminal justice system.

As National Adult Education and Family Literacy Week takes place September 18-24, 2022, River Parishes Community College and The Literacy Clinic are supporting local communities in their year-round efforts to strengthen the Diocese of St. John the Baptist and its surrounding communities. One of the associations. Free educational opportunities for children and adults.

The Literacy Clinic began a one-year pilot on August 25, 2021 in Saint John Parish.^th The Judicial District Court acts as an arbitrator to identify those who can benefit from literacy services. An additional $75,000 from the state legislature has been allocated for his second year of the program in 2022, now expanded to Berman Charter School in Orleans Parish.

Efforts at St. John Parish continue to focus on preparatory elementary schools in District 5, according to Judge Nghana Lewis of 40.^th Judicial District Court. The long-term vision is to operate literacy clinics in every district of Louisiana.

Kindergarten through 2nd grade is identified for the service as it is the age at which children are learning to read and lays the foundation for reading to learn in 3rd grade and beyond.

“Before expanding to other schools, we decided to focus on a single school to obtain data that is reliable, transferable, and able to support our position that this is an intervention that impacts change. “You want to go deep,” Lewis said. We begin to see problems that could put that child into the criminal justice system as a juvenile.

As St. John Parish recovers from Hurricane Ida, Lewis said the Literacy Clinic will host literacy support Saturday within the local library system to serve children in the fifth district’s non-primary community. rice field.

In the meantime, St. John Parish families who recognize the need are invited to visit theliteracyclinic.org or contact 40.^th Judicial District Court.

“We will do our best to match the family with the service through FINS,” Lewis said.

Another goal of our second year of operations is to explore the adult component of The Literacy Clinic’s operations.

“We aim to work with adults who participate in the system of non-violent, non-gender related crime. We are committed to providing support to achieve a qualification equivalent to a high school diploma,” Lewis said.

Literacy Clinic partners with River Parish Community College to increase awareness of adult education resources.

About 16.2% of Louisianas do not have a high school diploma. Here are the statistics for the parishes covered by the RPCC:

• Assumption – 27.3%
• Iberville – 22.6%
• John the Baptist – 17.0%
• James – 14.5%
• Charles – 12.8%
• Ascension – 11.8%

According to Sarina Lirette, RPCC’s director of adult education, Louisiana ranks fourth in the nation for the number of individuals without a high school diploma, and the annual income of those individuals who do have a high school diploma. That’s an average of $9,700 less than a person.

Four RPCC locations in Reserve, Boutte, Gonzales, and Plaquemine and a satellite location in St. James provide a range of free adult education services to the community.

“Our most enrolled programs are high school equivalent programs,” Lillett said. “There are actually five different paths people can take to reach high school equivalence, and we can help you decide which path is best for you.”

Once an individual enrolls in the program, an assessment tool will be used to determine their current status. Students determined to be at or below the 6th grade level are initially placed in a reading intervention program and set to succeed.
Course time frames vary according to individual student needs.

“We are not semester-based like most universities. “This does not mean that students start and finish in 12 months. They start with us and stay with us until they finish. For some places it can take months, for others it may be longer.”

Adult education courses are now offered during the day and evenings with the understanding that students have other duties outside of the classroom.

RPCC also offers short-term community education courses, including digital literacy, financial literacy, or other topics specific to community needs, Lirette said.

Individuals with high school equivalents may choose to pursue one of RPCC’s many workforce training programs using state-provided funding.

Next week, the RPCC will promote a National Adult Education and Family Literacy Week to spread awareness that there are too many resources available.
“We’re not just businesses and universities with buildings in these communities. We’re members of these communities,” Lillet said. “We understand that education and training are fundamental to a thriving community. We want to do everything we can to help the unemployed and underemployed acquire the skills they need to improve the quality of life for themselves and their families. and it spills over into the community.”

While providing support, both RPCC and The Literacy Clinic seek to identify potential barriers to education and connect individuals with resources to remove these barriers.

Lillette found school attendance and parenting to be common barriers to returning to school. Adult education courses are offered in face-to-face, online, and hybrid formats to reach as many individuals as possible.

Lewis added that transience and lack of stable housing have been a problem for families, especially after Hurricane Ida. there is.

Other challenges include mental health awareness and the region’s rapidly growing second-language English population.

ESL classes are offered free of charge through RPCC’s adult education program to enhance English learners’ ability to communicate effectively with others.

For more information on RPCC programming, visit one of our campuses or fill out the contact form on rpcc.edu.