Now in its third year, the Community Library Adult Literacy & Career Pathways grant program, offered by the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development (NJ LWD), has made a difference in the lives of thousands of adult learners at libraries throughout the state.
The Somerset County Library System (SCLS), now in its third year of receiving funds through this program, has been able to greatly expand English Language Learner (ELL) and Adult Basic Education courses throughout the library’s branches.
Christal Blue, branch manager of the North Plainfield Memorial Library and project director for the grant program at SCLS, has seen the results firsthand.
“SCLSNJ is pleased to be able to offer year round ELL services throughout our branches, and to be able to offer the library’s technology resources to improve learning,” said Blue. “We’ve had 199 participants in the first 2 years of the grant program. For the 2019 grant year we plan to provide services to an additional 45 students.”
For many students, these classes are a launching pad from which they reach higher and higher levels of educational and professional achievement.
“Students participating in our Adult Basic Education classes have reported successfully passing the High School Equivalency test and enrolling in Raritan Valley Community College. One student began studying nursing after obtaining a High School Equivalency degree, while another was able to find employment as an assistant teacher,” said Blue.
Similarly, at the Englewood Public Library, now in its first year as a recipient of the grant, English as a Second Language (ESL) students have reported that they enrolled to advance their careers, land new jobs, and to help their children or grandchildren with their homework. The classes are offered in partnership with Bergen County Technical Schools, which provides the teachers, curriculum, and administrative support. Already after one 10-week cycle of classes, the first group of students had a lot to celebrate at the end of the series. A second cycle of classes will begin in Englewood at the end of February, and a third later in the spring.
The key to the success of these grant programs is that NJ LWD recognized the need to partner with public libraries in the first place.
Dr. Danielle B. Jubanyik, New Jersey State Director for Adult Education & Literacy Services, NJ LWD, said:
“The Community Library Adult Literacy & Career Pathway grant provided by NJ LWD helps to reinforce the notion that it indeed takes a village when we look at helping folks in the community achieve literacy skills. The administration of NJ LWD is committed to supporting the libraries as they continue to educate, create career pathways, and develop more avenues of opportunity for those they interact with throughout the state.”
In Maplewood, the grant funding provided by the state allowed the library to revive an ESL program that had been cut due to a lack of funding. Irene Langlois, manager of the Hilton Branch of the Maplewood Library, said that, before the cuts in 2014, 65 students were attended ESL classes every session.
“We had countless requests for the return of the service from the public. If anything, the need for ESL classes had increased,” said Langlois.
With funding beginning in 2016 from NJ LWD, Maplewood has not only restored ESL classes, but has been able to assist students in many other ways.
“The grant has done more than just provide free ESL classes for our community. It’s given us the opportunity to provide other services to the students. We have scheduled free health screenings, job search and citizenship workshops after the ESL classes. The health screenings, which include referrals to appropriate medical services, have been especially popular,” said Langlois.
The impact these classes have on their students, the families of those students, on the communities in which they live, and on society overall truly cannot be measured.
“NJ LWD recognizes that literacy extends beyond those participants who take part in NJ LWD funded programs at libraries; many communities and families can rally around the NJ LWD belief that helping one person impacts many in the end. NJ LWD is proud of the partnership developed through the hard work and sustainability of the current adult literacy programs provided by the NJ library systems and their partners,” said Jubanyik.
