FAMILY LITERACY & ENGAGEMENT
Family involvement in reading, including reading aloud to children, can significantly improve a child’s literacy skills — especially among low-income families where language barriers may exist. GenerationEd’s Learning Together Family Literacy program assists families in overcoming these barriers by engaging parents and their children in the learning process, resulting in improved literacy skills for parents and children. Learning Together integrates four key components of family literacy: adult education, early childhood education, parent training, and parent-child together time to create a lifelong love of learning for immigrant/refugee families in Guilford County, as they work to accomplish and sustain their educational and vocational goals and social advancement.
LEARNING TOGETHER: FOUR PROGRAM COMPONENTS
Parents and their children learn together, “under one roof,” through the integration of four program components:
ADULT EDUCATION
Immigrants and refugee adults age 18 or older have the opportunity to improve their English, writing, math, and communication skills through English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) classes offered by Guilford Technical Community College. Small instructor-led classrooms provide personalized instructor-student interaction and allow students to work at their own pace with guidance from program staff.
A GED program is also available through our Family Success Center
EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION
Through Learning Together, children from 6 months to 5 years old have access to early childhood education that prepares them from kindergarten and success in school. Early education teachers provide a safe and nurturing environment where your child participates in a variety of activities based on his or her individual strengths and interests.
PARENT AND CHILD TOGETHER TIME (PART TIME)
Learning Together offers one-on-one play or activities between parent and children that build parenting skills, engage parents in the learning process, and increase family knowledge of and access to community resources. Activities include story times, crafts, and field trips to the public library, museums, health clinics, and more.
PARENT TIME
To assist parents in building on their strengths and discovering new ideas and resources, our Learning Together program frequently hosts presentations on family health, work readiness, effective life skills and other informational topics. Conducted by community representatives, the presentations are based on parental needs.
Learning Together uses quality children’s books as a centerpiece in which to integrate all four program components. Each month, parents receive a book to build their in-home library, which promotes continued reading in the home and nurtures a love of books. Each book of the month has associated activities that relate to use of the community.
A grant from the National Center for Families Learning (NCFL) has helped LT add a family service-learning component to the program. As a participant, you will choose a service project with your classmates to help solve a problem in the community!
BENEFITS
Learning Together offers all of the following at NO COST to eligible families:
- ESOL courses
- Quality preschool education (children 6 months to 5 years)
- Safe and supportive learning environment
- Children’s books for home learning
- Field trips
- Guidance and instruction from health and education professionals
As a Learning Together participant you can:
- Increase knowledge of community resources and how to access those resources
- Increase your success in utilizing community resources.
- Increase your life skills and employability.
- Improve your reading comprehension.
- Build your parenting skills.
- Become more involved in the learning development of your children.
- Ensure optimal development of your children.
Meet Our Donors
They Believe In Us
The Learning Together Family Literacy Program receives generous support from the following funders:
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