Literacy Service Center Supports County-Wide "Vision2Read"

A proclamation supporting San Bernardino County’s Vision2Read county-wide effort and the San Bernardino Public Library’s (SBPL) local contributions was presented by the city of San Bernardino Mayor and Common Council at its Sept. 21 meeting. The county-wide vision embarked in September on a year-long campaign titled “Vision2Read” to foster literacy within San Bernardino County. SBPL’s Jack L. Hill Lifelong Learning Center (formerly known as the Literacy Center) has been providing literacy services to the San Bernardino community since 1989. “We’re pleased to support increasing literacy, especially early literacy, in our city as part of the project throughout the county,” said SBPL Library Director Ed Erjavek, who received the proclamation for the library. “Our literacy and library services offer residents a great opportunity to increase their knowledge and improve their educational levels at a great price – free. And we’re grateful to the mayor and common council for honoring our contributions.” The “Vision2Read” effort will promote reading and literacy programs throughout the county, direct those who need assistance to those programs, encourage members of the community to volunteer in reading and literacy efforts, and raise overall awareness of the importance of reading and literacy to the county’s future. “Coming to the Learning Center has changed my life. When I started I couldn’t read, and now I am helping people overcome the same problem I had,” says Mark. Mark, who prefers not to share his last name, is now a full-time volunteer with the Lifelong Learning Center and is our student advocate. The SBPL Lifelong Learning Center provided services to over 360 adults and children in fiscal year 2014/15. Assistance in the areas of basic skills, English improvement, citizenship, after school homework help, as well as computer assisted learning, are all a part of the services the Lifelong Learning Center provides. Classes in Basic Computer Skills are also a small part of the additional classes that are offered in the Lifelong Learning Center. Students are shown how reading, writing, and computation skills, and language arts are part of their everyday lives. They are encouraged to read the newspaper, calculate the cost of groceries, and write letters to their relatives. The Lifelong Learning Center boasts a success rate of three out of four students achieving a significant gain (a five-level point gain) over a one-year period. Although the Lifelong Learning Center has strong community partnerships and collaborations, there are no local monies used to provide these services to the San Bernardino Community. A major portion of funding (80 percent) for the Lifelong Learning Center comes from a grant from the California Department of Education through the Workforce Investment Act. The balance of funding is supplied through the California State Library for Literacy Services. The Literacy Program Coordinator is constantly researching available grants for the continuation of these services to the San Bernardino community. SBPL also offers various electronic resources for its library cardholders to promote reading and learning, including Overdrive eBooks and audiobooks; LearningExpressLibrary has practice tests including the SAT, GED and job-related tests; Brainfuse offers online tutors daily from 1 to 10 p.m. in various subjects for learners of all ages and more databases are available by going to the library web site at www.sbpl.org and selecting “E for Me.” The Learning Center is open Monday through Thursday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.