Winnebago County
Literacy Council

"We teach so others may reach"

106 Washington Ave
Oshkosh, WI 54901
920.236.5185
www.winlit.org

The Winnebago County Literacy Council (WCLC) has been providing literacy services to adults throughout Winnebago County since its inception in 1989. The primary focus of the agency is to provide one-to-one tutoring opportunities to adults reading at or below a fourth-grade level. The WCLC utilizes trained volunteer tutors to teach adult students how to read and apply basic survival literacy skills to everyday life.

New Benefactors!

Each month, we acknowledge our new or renewing benefactors. These are hard working business people and friends who are willing to share their resources to see the Winnebago County Literacy Council and its programs grow.
To view the list of new or renewing benefactors, click here!

The Winnebago County Literacy Council is partnering with People First Oshkosh and Arc Winnebago County Disability Association in I VOTED 2008, a strategic campaign designed by People First Oshkosh to get people with disabilities, their families, guardians and caretakers registered to vote, educated to vote and mobilized to vote.

Many people with low literacy skills do not vote because they do not feel informed about the candidates and issues.  Because of this, the goal of many literacy programs today is to improve functional literacy skills, helping clients to increase their participation in society by becoming informed about issues that affect them, according to Dr. William Kitz, a retired University of Wisconsin Oshkosh professor.

Our board president, Bob Poeschl, who works with the Arc, has the ability to register people to vote.  So if you are a student, tutor or a family member of either, please contact him to assist you in registering to vote, finding polling places and even assistance to the polls. He can be reached at 920-236-9230 or at the Ability Resource Center, 115 Washington Avenue, Oshkosh.

Younker's Community Day

November 15, 2008

The WCLC is selling coupon booklets to the public for $5 each, keeping 100% of the proceeds! Each booklet contains coupons valid during Younker's Community Day One Day Sale on November 15th.

What will customers receive in each booklet? With each $5 coupon booklet purchase, customers receive:

• One $10 coupon, good toward any item of $10 or more (exclusions apply)
• Eight additional coupons, each good for up to 20% off one item (exclusions apply)—in addition to our special One Day Sale prices.

Pick up your booklet at the Literacy Council office. Questions, call Liz at 236-5185.

Giving to the WCLC is Easier in 2008!

Beginning in 2008 you may make a monthly contribution to the Winnebago County Literacy Council by having funds from your savings or checking account automatically deposited to the WCLC. You simply decide on the amount you want to contribute, click on our the credit/debit authorization form, complete and return the form to us, and we'll do the rest!

Credit/Debit Authorization Form

New Partners!

Two Heritage Makers consultants are pleased to announce they will be donating 25% of their profits to the Literacy Council for sales generated through people, parties, and events associated with the Literacy Council.  Heritage Makers is a web-based system of creating your own hardcover, professionally-published storybooks, posters, calendars, and cards.  For more information, visit www.AStoryToHold.com or email Carolyn Dargevics at cadargevics@yahoo.com.  You may also phone the consultants: Rhonda Gustafson at 920-740-4277 and Carolyn Dargevics at 920-203-3610.

Support WCLC with Goodsearch.com and raise money!

What if the WCLC earned a penny every time you searched the Internet? Or how about if a percentage of every purchase you made online went to support our cause? Well, now it can!

Use http://www.goodsearch.com/ as your search engine - we earn a penny for every search you do.

GoodSearch.com is a new Yahoo-powered search engine that donates half its advertising revenue, about a penny per search, to the charities its users designate. Use it just as you would ny search engine, get quality search results from Yahoo, and watch the donations add up!

GoodShop.com is a new online shopping mall which donates up to 37 percent of each purchase to your favorite cause! Hundreds of great stores including Amazon, Target, Gap, Best Buy, ebay, Macy's and Barnes & Noble have teamed up with GoodShop and every time you place an order, you’ll be supporting your favorite cause.

Just go to www.goodsearch.com and be sure to enter the Winnebago County Literacy Council as the charity you want to support. And, be sure to spread the word!

"We Care" Pick n' Save

You can support the WCLC each time you shop at Pick n' Save. Stop at the customer service desk and ask to have the WCLC account number assigned to your card. Each time you use your card we get a donation!

What's New

Celebrate International Literacy Day

September 8, 2008

International Literacy Day, observed annually on September 8, focuses attention on worldwide literacy needs. More than 780 million of the world’s adults (nearly two-thirds of whom are women) do not know how to read or write, and between 94 and 115 million children lack access to education.

WCLC Board

Front Row: Joe Manske & Bob Poeschl

Standing: Jan Wetterau-Houge, Debbie Mosher, Gini Davis, Nancy Knoll-Gartner, Barb Herzog, Bernie Olejniczak, & Joan Mueller

WCLC Board Member

Joan Mueller

I am now treasurer for the Winnebago County Literacy Council. My day job is Assistant Director of the Oshkosh Public Library. About four years ago it became my responsibility to be the library's liaison to the Council. However, adult literacy issues have been part of my career since graduate school in 1972 when I studied with Helen Lyman, one of the significant figures in library service to new adult readers. As a children's librarian in Fond du Lac I was approached by adults who wanted to learn to read, but had no one to whom to refer them. I came to Oshkosh in the mid-1980s when adult literacy came to public attention because of job displacement and retraining issues. I had the opportunity to act on that need and served on a regional committee to address the issue. My contribution was recruiting Laurie Magee as the library's Head of Outreach Services. From a loose coalition of tutors supported by the Altrusa Club, Laurie used federal grants to the library to organize the Winnebago County Literacy Council. We still struggle to meet the needs of adults whose education was interrupted by war and refugee status, of adults with unaddressed learning disabilities, of adults who are finally ready to act to overcome their secret reading problems. Join me in upgrading your commitment to WCLC and our mission.

The WCLC welcomes Natalie Johnson, Marketing Communications Manager, UW Oshkosh Integrated Marketing & Communications, to our Board of Directors. We are always looking for more Board members who believe in advocating for literacy issues in the Oshkosh community and throughout Winnebago County.  We hope you may find yourself being a part of changing people’s lives here in Oshkosh.  Meetings are held the third Thursday of the month at the Oshkosh Public Library from 4 - 5 PM. Interested students or individuals should contact Liz Rice Janzen, Executive Director, at 236-5185, or email her at janzen@winlit.org.

Tutor Resource

Looking for a good website with ideas and literacy tools to use? Check out Dave's ESL Cafe Website (idioms, slang, phrasal verbs, hint-a-day, links to many other resources)

Programs

Location:  Oshkosh Public Library

Dates: September 8th through the 11th (Monday - Thursday)

Time: 6:00pm – 9:00pm

Location:  Menasha Public Library

Date: Saturday, August 16     

Time: 9:00am-1:00pm

Location:  Oshkosh Public Library

Date: Saturday, September 20     

Time: 9:00am-1:00pm

Help open someone's world to opportunities once never thought possible.
Give the gift of reading -- register for a workshop today!!!

One-on-One Literacy Tutoring

WCLC provides one-to-one tutoring opportunities to adults and families in the areas of Basic Literacy, ESL, Family Literacy, Math, Workplace Literacy, and Citizenship.

One-on-One Family Literacy Tutoring Program

WCLC will train volunteer tutors to work with families at the library, in their homes, or another mutually agreed upon location in order to improve literacy levels and promote learning together as a family. This program hopes to empower parents to see themselves as their child’s first and best teacher.

Family Literacy Program

The Family Literacy Program serves refugee families needing to learn survival English. This Family literacy Program provides an Adult English as a Second Language (ESL) classes for parents while their children received age-appropriate learning in an Early Learning Classroom at the same time.

For information on any of these programs, contact Raissa Reimer at reimer@winlit.org or call 236-5219 ext. 4802.

Events

SCRABBLE BEE

Becket's Restaurant

City Center

5:30-9:30

Grab 3 of your friends, colleagues or co-workers and register your team to compete against others

Register now, space is limited!

Team Registration $100

Includes Food and Door Prizes.

Cash Bar

Click on the links below to download your team registration form and pledge sheet. Return your registration form to the WCLC by September 25th.

Team Registration Form

Not very good at Scrabble®?
No problem. You may buy extra letters, sneak peeks in the dictionary, and even get expert advice. The more you raise in pledges the more opportunities you'll have!

Pledge Sheet

Winnebago County Literacy Council 7th Annual Spelling Bee a Success!

St. John Neumann Middles School Team Wins WCLC Middle School Bee!

The Oshkosh Public Library Team Reclaims Their Title as Bee Champs!

Join us next year, Saturday, February 21, 2009

Wanted!

Adult Literacy Tutoring Program

Cassette players with recording option

Blank cassette tapes

Family Literacy Program

Gift certificates to grocery stores to purchase snacks

Small to medium size foam or Dixie cups

Juice

Crackers

Napkins and paper plates

Play dough

Office Supplies

Dry eraser markers (wipe boards)

Copy paper

Manila file folders

Black and color ink cartridges (Black is 96 Color is 97)

Of Interest

Business or articles of interest to the WCLC readership.

Do you have an article or item of interest to the business or education community that will benefit our tutors or students? We'd enjoy your input! This is a great way to spotlight your company, message or name! Contact Liz Rice Janzen!

Wisconsin Literacy is announcing its annual Twelve Hundred Tutors in Twelve Weeks (THT) campaign.  

“Twelve Hundred Tutors in Twelve Weeks” is a statewide recruitment effort to meet the rising demand for services among adult literacy programs in Wisconsin. Wisconsin Literacy member organizations pledge to recruit and train a specific number of new tutors during this campaign.

Approximately one million Wisconsin adults qualify for adult literacy and English language services (U. S. Census 2000). Less than 10% of these adults in need of services are currently receiving them.Thirty-seven literacy programs throughout the state set out to increase the number of volunteers by recruiting and training 960 tutors during Wisconsin Literacy's "Twelve Hundred Tutors in Twelve Weeks" campaign that ran from September 8, International Literacy Day, through December 1, 2007.

Wisconsin Literacy is a statewide coalition of adult literacy providers that offer free instruction to adults who wish to improve their reading, writing or speaking skills in English.Through grants from Verizon, Wisconsin Literacy has held an annual statewide tutor training campaign for the last several years in order to try to meet the rising demand for services among adult literacy programs in Wisconsin. Each participating literacy program receives a reimbursement through the Verizon grant based on the amount of tutors it recruits and trains in a specific amount of time. This year, literacy programs in Wisconsin trained 960 tutors in 12 weeks.

"The campaign meets an immediate need for those learners who have been on waiting lists to receive literacy services, thereby improving their involvement as active community members, skilled workers and more engaged parents," said Georgia Weier, member services manager for Wisconsin Literacy. "It also highlights the impact a corporate leader can have in addressing this literacy issue. Verizon has invested in many communities throughout Wisconsin and the country through innovative, technology-based approaches to literacy. The company has offered a great incentive for our member programs to publicize their tutor trainings and recruit more volunteers."

An economy that thrives in the new global environment! A workforce educated for jobs that pay a family-sustaining wage! America flourishing as a secure democracy and world leader! Powerful demographic evidence points to a clear connection between these ideals and the need for adult education and workforce skills services in America--on a scale unprecedented in history. Following two years of study,the National Commission on Adult Literacy calls for a program on the scale of a “domestic Marshall plan” to achieve these goals.

The Commission’s report, Reach Higher, AMERICA: Overcoming Crisis in the U.S. Workforce, calls for a dramatically revamped service system with the capacity to effectively serve 20 million adults annually by the year 2020. It also calls for resetting the educational mission of this new system to demonstrated readiness for postsecondary education and job training. The report recommends specific actions to accomplish this with emphasis on groups most in need of service and on system accountability and results. State and federal government, business and labor, philanthropic groups, nonprofit organizations, and the general public all have a vital role in meeting the

Commission’s vision for America’s 21st Century
workforce. CLICK HERE to obtain the report and related materials.

Contact Us!

The easiest way to contact us is using email - you've seen our email address throughout - that of Liz Rice Janzen! Our phone number and mail address are:

920.236.5185 phone
920.236.5227 fax
106 Washington Ave. Oshkosh, WI 54901

Closing Notes:

Winnebago County Literacy Council relies exclusively on volunteers and gifts from our community to serve in our community. If you are willing to volunteer time or give a gift of money, thank you!