Make a Difference Day in Winston-Salem

For Make a Difference Day, we chose to take advantage of a large amount of children's books that the YMCA Literacy Inititative was given by another non-profit to donate to individuals as gifts. We worked with mothers in an ESL class through the Toyota Family Literacy Program. Our volunteers helped to organize the books, selecting books ideal for elementary school children. Once the books were selected, we helped the volunteers write Get Well letters in English (vocabulary, phrases) to sick children. They enjoyed using their creativity, decorating the letter with drawings and stickers. Together with the volunteers, we wrote over 30 letters, all of which were matched with a children's book and given to a reduced price/free clinic. These books and Get Well letters will be given as gifts to sick children visiting the clinic.
After writing the letters, we discussed the importance of reading to children, associating books with gifts, and the need for literacy in Winston-Salem. We taught about the ways in which children learn to read, how children's books teach morals/lessons, etc. At the end of the class period, the mothers were able to select books for their children and write them a note.
Grant led the group by helping with organizing and transporting the books, providing materials for the letters and help with writing the letters in English. Nora led the follow-up discussion on literacy and the importance of reading to children at an early age. However, we collaborated our time and efforts to do this project and gave the books to the clinic together.
The group of volunteers consisted of 8 mothers in the literacy program. We worked through the Toyota Family Literacy Program, Easton Elementary School, and used books donated by Johnathan's Legacy. The books were donated to the Community Care Clinic.

Grant & Nora

Making a Difference One Flier At A Time

Brainstorming is fun

About to begin the project :)

Finished product

Another job well done!

During the past few months it has been so amazing getting to know the students that I am working with. One of the programs that I work with through LiteracyCorp is called Learning Together through Guilford Child Development. Learning Together is a family literacy program that offers free GED and ESL instruction to adult participants and an academically rich curriculum for their children.

One of the goals that I have while working with this program is to create a group of motivated, well-trained, intelligent, on call tutors that work with the GED and ESL students enrolled with the Learning Together program. After doing a needs assessment within the program, learning the ins and outs of the protocol and HR process, I am ready for recruitment.

The Make a Difference Project that I decided to do was to have to students to brainstorm ideas for fliers that would recruit tutors for the program. As a class, we discussed why they would like to have tutors and what they would want in a tutor. We also talked how they could create flier and what they could draw on their flier to make it more attractive.

These fliers will be put up in visible places within the community in hopes to gain more volunteer interest for our program. This project will not only make a difference for our program in the amount of volunteers that we will have but also made a difference for our participants. They each had a chance to think about how they would recruit volunteers and learned how to make fliers. Also, we all had fun in the process!