• Who We Are
• Accreditation
• Community Partners
• Our History
• Board of Directors
• Meet the Staff
  • Overview
  • Executive Director
  • Adult Education Director
  • ESOL Director
  • Development Director
  • Outreach Director
  • Office Manager
• Annual Reports

Community Partners

Joining forces to broaden our reach.

The Literacy Council believes strongly in working through a network of partners to help link the various services provided with those who need them.

A key partner is AB Technical College. We work closely with the Basic Skills Department to help low level readers gain skills necessary to study for their High School General Equivalency Diploma (GED).

The Literacy Council, in partnership with Buncombe County Schools and the YMCA of Western North Carolina, will offer ESOL classes to parents at Erwin and Enka Middle Schools during the 2009-2010 school year.   Financing comes from the 21st Century Community Learning Center Grant which targets at-risk children.   The YMCA is leading after school programs for the children and our Literacy Council volunteer tutors will conduct ESOL classes for their parents.

We also partner with Children First of Buncombe County to provide ESOL and Adult Education group instruction to parents in community locations such as the Children First Family Resource Center at Emma.   Other community partners which provide space and/or childcare for our ESOL group classes include:   Western North Carolina Community Health Services, St. Eugene Catholic Church, St. Joan of Arc, the Lutheran Church of the Nativity, First Presbyterian Church, Trinity United Methodist, Central United Methodist, the YWCA, the YMCA, and area public libraries.

Finally, our community partnerships would not be complete without the United Way.   The United Way helps promote literacy in many ways:   major funding and grants, student referrals, volunteer support, advocacy within the community, and publicity.   We thank the United Way and all our community partners for making literacy happen in Buncombe County.

 

 

 

The Book

By Fred Chappell

Poet Laureate Emeritus of North Carolina

 

It waits as patiently as a forest trail

To take you to a place you must have heard about,

Quiet and exciting, a glade to be alone in,

With those who came before.

At first the journey is one slow letter at a time,

But sooner than you thought, you clip along,

Your pace growing smarter with each step.

 

You never arrive at an end

Because you never want to,

And a thousand other trails lead off from this one path,

Mysterious, inviting, alive with shadowy light.

 

The book will go with you as far as you desire.

And if you like, I will come with you.