T

he Literacy Plus program aims to solve the problem of a lack of literacy in Hayward by providing illiterate adults free tutoring sessions at the Hayward Public Library.

Results from the National Assessment of Adult Literacy, available through the National Center for Education Statistics, found that 30 million adults have ‘below basic’ literacy skills, with more than half of those not having a high school diploma or GED.

This means that nationwide, 1 out of every 6 adults lacks the basic literacy skills across the country.

In Hayward alone, up to 25,000 adults are unable to read and write below the 8th grade level and nearly 5,000 adults are functionally illiterate, according to the Hayward Public Library.

Literacy plus is a volunteer-driven program formed in 1985 that is dedicated to helping adults achieve their literacy goals by offering basic reading and writing instruction sessions as well as giving them a chance to learn in a positive one-one learning environment.

“They’ve had a lot of negative learning experiences,” said Cynthia Breeden-Johnson, program coordinator. “They’ve been put in a group setting and it hasn’t really worked out for them, classroom settings haven’t really worked out for them, sometimes they’ve moved and tried to go into adult schools and different things, but all those different things haven’t really worked out for them.”

One thing that contributes to the nationwide problem of illiteracy is the amount of immigrants who come to the United States to seek job opportunities.

About 50 percent of these immigrants have low literacy skills, English language skills, or a high school diploma, according to statistics from Scientific Learning. This greatly limits their access to job training and citizenship.

The escalating high school dropout rate is also a factor that leads to low literacy levels in the U.S. Every year, 1 in 3 young adults drops out of high school, according to Scientific Learning.

Shirengul Nawabi, a member of Literacy Plus’s Families for Literacy program remembers the difficulty she experienced when she moved from Afghanistan to Hayward.

“When I came to this country seven years ago, I couldn’t write or go to the school,” she said. “Now I’m going to Chabot College. [My tutor] helped me with everything, how to fill out my papers, my reading, writing, and math.”

Literacy Plus is a goal driven program consisting of trained volunteer tutors who are prepared with a daily lesson plan specified towards each individual learner’s needs. Tutors mark the learner’s success by having them fill out a ‘roles and goals’ sheet during one of their first tutoring sessions.

Learners stay in the program anywhere from a year up to 15 years and their goals may include learning to surf the internet, apply for a job, attend and graduate from college, teach their children how to read, vote or to get a driver’s license, Johnson said.

“It helped get me on track,” said John Lau, who has been part of the program since 2010. “When I was trying to go to a job [interview] I couldn’t speak to them, I couldn’t even fill out the application. I went to the library to try and get some information and saw [an advertisement for] the Literacy Plus program. They gave me a tutor, and then they helped me graduate from Hayward Adult School.”

Since 1986, Literacy Plus has helped over 3,000 adults improve their reading, writing and conversation skills. With the emphasis on the importance of the ability to read and write, learners have left the program with increased skills, an increased likelihood to obtain jobs and a higher self esteem.

Literacy Plus also offers a Families for Literacy Program, which provides tutoring to adult learners and their children. A major goal of this group is to give free books to parents who can enjoy them with their children. Last year the program gave away 1,000 free books to families, Johnson said.

“I enjoy it because it helps me and my grandson [Sonny] communicate with each other and we get to spend time together and do art together,” said Richard Martinez, who has been involved with the Families for Literacy program for about a year. “He depends on it. They send him a letter every two weeks and I give him the letter and say ‘look Sonny, you’ve got something in the mail, looks like we’re going to do some art!’ And he loves it a lot.”

Another service offered by Literacy Plus is the After School Homework and Support Center, in which trained volunteer tutors provide free drop-in homework assistance at the main library to students from Park Elementary, Longwood Elementary and Harder Elementary School.

“If you can’t read you get nowhere,” said Literacy Plus tutor Helan Becan. “The people come in and it’s really neat to see how they are starting from scratch to learn [to read and write].”