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Literacy Volunteers of Coconino County

Assignment Title: Educational Assistant

Location: 715 N. Humphreys, Flagstaff, AZ 86001

According to the National Adult Literacy Survey of 1993, 16% of the adults in Coconino County could be classified as functionally illiterate. Preliminary figures from the 2000 census indicate that this number may now exceed 20% (ProLiteracy America, 2004). The negative impact of this problem is widespread and well-known. Adult illiteracy contributes to unemployment, welfare, and crime. Children of illiterate parents are much more likely to perform poorly in school and drop out before obtaining a high school diploma. Functional illiteracy even contributes to rising health care costs. The American Medical Association estimates that low literacy costs the health care system over $70 billion a year.

Literacy Volunteers of Coconino County (LVCC) has worked hard to eradicate functional illiteracy in Flagstaff and surrounding communities for the past 16 years with the help of many volunteers. Trained volunteer tutors work one-to-one with adult learners in weekly tutoring sessions. Last year, nearly 250 adult learners were active in our program, learning to be better workers, citizens, and role models for their children. But our volunteer program can only do so much. LVCC is ready to expand its services by increasing the number of classes and drop-in literacy services it offers in addition to its one-to-one volunteer tutoring program. That is, LVCC will continue the transformation from a literacy program to a Literacy Center in the coming years.

The Literacy Center requires a three-part organizational structure. The first part focuses on fund development and public relations, the second part on program management, and the third part on education. Fund Development and public relations are the domain of the Executive Director with help from the Board of Directors. Program oversight is provided by the Program Manager and the Office Assistant, funded through the federal work study program. Educational services are the focus of the Education Specialist with help from the AmeriCorps Education Assistant. We continue to improve and expand educational activities each year.

Our 2009 AmeriCorps member will play a key role in the educational branch of the organization. Under the guidance of the Program Manager, the AmeriCorps member will work with the Education Specialist on continuing projects, which include: assessing community needs, developing classes and class schedules, and evaluating learner progress. The AmeriCorps member will also have the opportunity to assist the Education Specialist with tutor training, literacy teaching and development of drop-in services such as resume writing, assistance with filling out forms, and so on. This person will also have the opportunity to teach small group classes such as the following: drop-in English conversation, citizenship and computer skills.

LVCC will be able to carry out this project more quickly with the assistance of an AmeriCorps member, but the AmeriCorps member is not essential for its completion. It has been our practice to use AmeriCorps assistance in areas where we are developing new ideas or improving existing practices, not to shoulder full responsibility for essential operations. We feel LVCC is an excellent mentor site for AmeriCorps volunteers because we are a small, yet important organization in the community. We offer the AmeriCorps member a variety of tasks, intellectual challenges, and many opportunities for personal and professional growth.

AmeriCorps Service Assignment Description:
1. Literacy assessment: After training, the Education Assistant will arrange and conduct one-to-one assessments of adult literacy learners’ progress in the program
2. Monitoring tutor activities: The Education Assistant will assist the Program Manager in contacting volunteer tutors through phone calls and emails.
3. Tutor Training: After training, the Education Assistant will conduct portions of our tutor training program.
4. Data base support: After training, the Education Assistant will assist the Program Manager in keeping documentation on tutor activity and learner progress in our Access data base.
5. Opportunities for individual projects are available. For example, the Education Assistant may want to teach a class in citizenship, plan a social event, or create printed materials to advertise the program.

AmeriCorps Member Qualifications:

1. Basic Spanish language skills are important in order to reach Spanish speaking learners by telephone, greet Spanish-speaking learners when they drop in, and explain Assessment procedures. Approximately 70% of the 300 adult learners LVCC serves per year are Spanish speakers. On the job training in appropriate vocabulary and phrasing (telephone scripts, how to make appointments, classes available, describing locations, etc.) is available.

2. Professional appearance and behavior appropriate for an office is required. Telephone skills, taking messages, friendly customer service attitude and etc. are all important in this position.

3. The Education Assistant will attend each tutor training session (3 sets of 2 per year) held during the service period. These take place in the evening and on the weekends, so some flexibility in schedules is necessary.

4. Familiarity with computer software is essential. The Education Assistant must be comfortable with spread sheets and filling out computerized forms and dependable when entering data on tutor and learner progress.

5. Every AmeriCorps Education Assistant that we have had the pleasure to work with in the last several years brings his or her own set of interests and experience to the job. We encourage each to find a way to connect this background with adult literacy projects in order to develop something to benefit the organization and the individual. This may include educational, artistic, or other types of projects. Independent thinking is an important pre-requisite for this part of the experience.

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