Area agencies band together for literacy

LYNN – Nearly two dozen agencies are teaming together to attack a literacy problem in the city that Operation Bootstrap Executive Director Edward Tirrell said has reached a critical level.According to Tirrell, roughly 30 percent of Lynn residents – close to 30,000 – do not hold a high school diploma and or have limited English language skills.”We see about 1 percent of that here,” he said. “So what do we do for the other 29,000 that need to work on their skills and can’t get into a program?”Tirrell said he began to speak to other agencies about his concerns and more than 20 immediately signed on to develop a citywide approach to try and remedy the situation. Working with no budget, The North Shore Workforce Investment Board, The Essex County Community Organization, Lynn Housing Authority and Neighborhood Development, Highlands Coalition, Gregg House, New Immigrant Center, Centerboard, North Shore Community College and the Ford Community School along with others have formulated a basic plan to try and buck a bad trend.Tirrell said the core of the campaign, which will have an official kick off in December, includes three facets: Lynn Reads, a family reading program, English Conversation classes and Reading Aloud.Lynn Reads encourages families to first and foremost get a library card. Tirrell said the program also asks families to read together for 15 minutes a night and track the time they spend reading.”When you read to kids it’s more about quality time,” he said. “If kids see parents reading it encourages them to read.”The English conversation classes will involve recruiting, training and supporting volunteers to lead conversation classes in their homes, neighborhoods, at their church or even at work. Reading Aloud also involves recruiting and training volunteers but they will conduct weekly family read-aloud events at various locations around the city. Tirrell said the point of the read-aloud events is to show people “this is what reading to kids looks like.”Carly McClain of the New Lynn Coalition said she is surprised by how many people she meets who don’t read to their children.”We read together every single night and it’s been good for our family,” she said. “I think the point of this is to spread a love of reading across the city, and we’ll see the benefits inside and outside the classroom.”When the study Tirrell referred to, “Breaking the Language Barrier, A Report on English Language Services in Greater Boston,” came out McClain said it wasn’t difficult to see how a lack of education and or English proficiency affected one’s abilities to earn enough to support a family. According to the study, conducted by The Boston Foundation, even 30 percent of immigrants with bachelor’s degrees and 21 percent with master’s degrees have limited English proficiency, which also has a profound impact on their earning power.”On average, an immigrant in Massachusetts who speaks English fluently earns $38,526 annually compared to just $14,221 for an immigrant who does not speak English well,” states the study. “Even among college-educated immigrants, English proficiency can mean an additional $20,000 in annual earning power.”Tirrell said literacy is not only critical to 30,000 immigrants in the city but it’s critical to the city’s economy as well.”If we have a low-skilled workforce businesses won’t expand ? businesses won’t come,” he said. “We need to do something about it.”Chris Stevens can be reached at [email protected].