[NLA] Info: New York and New Jersey Advocacy Update

[David J. Rosen]

NLA Colleagues:

Here's some wonderful advocacy news which Paul Jurmo sent me today. 
This kind of activity is the result of a concerted commitment to raising 
awareness of policy-makers to the importance of adult literacy education 
(including ESOL, of course).  I want to call your attention to the last 
sentence of Paul's point 5 which is something I hope the National 
Coalition for Literacy and others might raise with the new NIFL Board, 
as well as with Congress.

David J. Rosen
NLA List Moderator

Paul wrote

"IN NEW YORK:

     1. We passed out an advocacy message (which drew heavily on Jon
        Randall's guidelines) to about 200 people at an ESOL conference
        last Sat. (Feb. 2) in NYC.
     2. One adult education program (ESOL) at Brooklyn College (part of
        the City University of New York system) sent 800 letters to
        Senators Clinton and Schumer (via overnight mail to Jon Randall,
        who hand-delivered them).
     3. At the Consortium for Worker Education, we circulated the same
        advocacy message (mentioned in #1 above) to the 17 teachers in
        the ESOL classes we are running for unemployed Chinese-speaking
        garment workers.
     4. The flyer was also circulated to undergraduates who participate
        in "Literacy in Action," a course at New York University.  These
        college students get introduced to the adult literacy field
        through (a) participation in 13 college class sessions in which
        they discuss various aspects about the theory and practice of
        adult basic education and (b) volunteer work in local literacy
        and ESOL programs;
     5. At a meeting of program directors at the Literacy Assistance
        Center yesterday (2/5), there was much interest in developing an
        advocacy network in NYC, tied in with the legislative work of the
        NY Assn. for Adult and Continuing Ed.  We were pleased to hear
        that it appeared that adult ed overall might not get cut, as we
        feared, at least for now.  Participants wondered, however, how we
        are supposed to base our work on "research" if the funds for
        adult ed research were being cut.

     6. On February 13th, there will be a formal launching of the "Decade
        of Literacy" at the United Nations building.  Local practitioners
        and learners will attend.


IN NEW JERSEY

     7. Adult learners and staff in a family-ESOL program at the New
        Brunswick (NJ) Adult Learning Center faxed letters to their
        Congressmen in late January;
     8. The New Jersey Assn. for Lifelong Learning (NJALL) will hold
        several advocacy-related sessions at its annual conference (on
        April 3 and 4).  Jon Randall (policy expert, National Coalition
        for Literacy), David Rosen (NLA List Moderator), and Marty
        Finsterbusch (VALUE) will be among the presenters.
     9. I personally sent a letter to my two Senators (Corzine and
        Lautenberg) and to my Congressman (Rush Holt) last week.



Thanks to you and Jon for continuing to take the lead.


Paul Jurmo
Deputy Education Director
Consortium for Worker Education
275 7th Avenue, 16th Floor
New York, NY 10001
212/647-1900 ext. 275 (tel)
212/647-1916 (fax)
pjurmo at cwe.org






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