Alachua County leaders and community members came together Wednesday night for the first of what is expected to be a series of town hall meetings focused on improving literacy for both youth and adults in the county.
The roughly 90-minute meeting, held in the Eastside High School Auditorium in Gainesville, was hosted by the Children’s Trust of Alachua County (CTAC), United Way of North Central Florida, Alachua County and the Center for Nonprofit Excellence and included an overview of what organizers referred to as the, “Community Literacy Collaborative,” as well as input from the community.
“…Your voice, it matters. Nothing that we do with this literacy collaborative can be done without you,” CTAC Executive Director Marsha Kiner said while speaking to citizens in the audience.
Addressing the literacy ‘gap’ in Alachua County
Dr. Theresa Beachy, a chief organizational strategist at the Center for Nonprofit Excellence, started her remarks by defining literacy based on input leaders received from experts in the community, including the University of Florida’s College of Education, UF’s Lastinger Center for Learning and the University of Florida Literacy Institute (UFLI).
“We’re talking really about the ability to read and write at a level that allows full participation in one’s community and work,” she said. “So, fluency, vocabulary, being able to be part of conversations, read manuals for your work, read novels, enjoy all of the things that literacy brings.”
Beachy noted there has been a “gap” in Alachua County for several years, where students and adults in Alachua County have struggled with reading and writing. She added that this is something that has occurred across the nation.
“…There is a lot of work being done all over the country to try to fix this [literacy], and now we’re going to do our own version of trying to address this,” Beachy said.
Beachy referenced the Comprehensive Literacy Needs Assessment, which was compiled by the Lastinger Center in conjunction with the CTAC, Alachua County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC), Alachua County Public Schools (ACPS) and Citizens of Alachua County.
The study involved surveying ACPS educators and district staff, along with families and community members.
The assessment ended up outlining three big issues related to addressing literacy:
- Enhanced awareness and communication
- Focused support
- Expanded professional learning
“… Our school system is kind of the cornerstone of where reading and writing starts,” Beachy said, “but we have all of these great community groups that can support them by making sure that after-school enrichment [and] adult education programs are all working off the same page to get people where they need to go in reading and writing,” she said.
Beachy said to do this, leaders plan to build a team of local experts to create activities for families to use in their homes, online and through community programs. The programs that are successful, she said, will be expanded “for years to come.”
“We’re going to start with a small group so that we know what works,” Beachy said. “And then we’re going to cast the net wider and say, ‘all right, all of you that are doing stuff at your churches, that have community centers, that are running tutoring programs, we want to work with you, because now we know we have activities that you can do with the students…with the adults you’re interacting with that can really make a difference.”
Community members share feedback
A good duration of the meeting was dedicated to getting input from members of the community.
Dr. Naima Brown, vice president for Student Affairs at Santa Fe College, and Ian Fletcher, Chief Operating Officer (COO) for the Greater Gainesville Chamber of Commerce, facilitated the community input.
Citizens were presented with three different questions and were given two minutes to share their thoughts.
One question posed to community members was what things they feel get in the way of students and adults learning to read.
A few people brought up mental health as an obstacle.
Allysen Marks, executive director of Kids Count in Alachua County, said mental health is something she sees regularly with her students.
“Our location yesterday [Tuesday] was on a lockdown for a community-related gun incident…” she said. “Things like that are routinely happening in our communities, but we’re expecting students to come to school and read.”
Marks also brought up food insecurity and the possibility of residents losing access to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits by Saturday due to the ongoing federal government shutdown.
“We’re an after-school [program] and our kids are about to be hungry, and our parents are about to be stressed and strapped,” she said. “So, I think a collaborative approach that takes into account the whole child, the whole family, and beyond that, the whole community, [would be beneficial] because there are a lot of really wonderful resources in silos that are inaccessible to students and programs.”
Christi Arrington, executive director of Girls Place Inc., said one barrier for them is a “warm handoff from VPK or early childhood” into “out-of-school programs.”
“It takes time for parents to trust us with things that bring them shame or that they’re struggling with,” she said.
Other comments included a lack of parental knowledge in supporting a child’s education and the suggestion of a parent portal for moms and dads to call in for homework help for their children.
Community members who could not attend Wednesday’s meeting will have another opportunity to share their thoughts at a second town hall meeting on Thursday night at Santa Fe High School (16213 NW U.S. Highway 441, Alachua).
The meeting will be held from 5:30 to 7 p.m. inside the SF Auditorium.
Citizens can also share their input on literacy via email at alachuacountyreads@gmail.com.
Nick Anschultz is a Report for America corps member and writes about education for Mainstreet Daily News. This position is supported by local donations through the Community Catalyst for Local Journalism Fund at the Community Foundation of North Central Florida.