ILA President's Message

By Bob Stephenson, ILA President and Executive Director of The Literacy Coalition of Howard County

We serve “The hardest to reach, the hardest to teach with the least amount of resources.” That is how an outside observer described what we do to me. I agreed then and I agree now but things are changing. The Indiana Literacy Association is working hard to give all of us access to more resources, more mentors, and more support.

One way we are providing access to resources is at the IAACE Conference in French Lick. This year there is a day with a literacy strand. Wednesday, April 26th will have three sessions with concurrent workshops devoted to supporting literacy programs. You can register and attend the Wednesday session for just $50.00.

We all know that adult literacy programs require us to be competent in a wide variety of skills from training tutors to using social media. Wednesday’s schedule provides help with these and more. Click here to see a listing of scheduled presentations.  It is not too late to register for Wednesday and you can even show up and pay at the door.

The ILA is also preparing to possibly survey all of the literacy programs in Indiana. Over the years many were shut down and now we are seeing new programs getting started to take their place. If you know of programs, please forward their contact information to us so we can be sure to include them. 

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