editor@yourmonthlypaper.com
July 2011
Serving the Lafayette Community Project Second Chance
By Fran Miller
Lamorinda 4-H youth at the California Youth Fair June 28 – July 2. Pictured from left to right are Allison Kostecki, Kieran Manning, Madison Gibson, Jenn Chan, Natalie Vigo, Sarah Manning, Anthony Cannon, Olivia Glemser, and Morgan Vigo.
Do You Know How?
By Fran Miller
Are you a current or former professional with a wealth of knowledge or expertise in a particular subject? Are you willing to share that knowledge in order to make a difference in your community? If your answers are yes, and you are 55 or older, the Know How Network would like to recruit you. The Know How Network (KHN), formerly the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP), connects volunteers, age 55 and older, with local nonprofits in Contra Costa County that have projects matching volunteer interests, skills, and schedules. By utilizing personal experiences, energy, and enthusiasm to help complete short-term, high impact projects, skilled volunteers help KHN registered nonprofits advance their missions and client services by providing marketing or technology services, developing programs, training staff, fundraising, and more.
Share your professional experience by volunteering with The Know How Network. Pictured left to right, Carol Ann Barber, program manager, Alissa Fencsik, program manager, and Ann Wullschleger, KHN program director.
Established a year ago in response to baby boomers’ desire to volunteer their professional skills and experience within their communities, KHN and its volunteers are changing the volunteer landscape with the mutually beneficial partnerships between skilled volunteer labor and worthy non-profits. The staff of KHN recruit, interview, and match volunteers age 55+ with “know how” to assist nonprofits with short-term projects, typically one to three
See How continued on page 24 PRSRT STD U.S. Postage PAID Permit 21 Lafayette CA
With nearly 20% of the United States population estimated to be dyslexic, it is almost certain someone you know struggles with reading. Many hide their illiteracy behind excellent coping strategies, and many have managed to get through school and even graduate with high school diplomas. Challenged readers are everywhere, and, according to Laura Seaholm, program manager at Project Second Chance literacy program, it is not due to lack of intelligence. “Many people, particularly those with dyslexia, simply needed to learn to read differently,” says Seaholm, who states that about half of Project Second Chance’s students were born and educated in the United States, but never learned to read and write at the level they wish – probably due to some type of learning disability. Project Second Chance (PSC), the Contra Costa County Library Adult Literacy Program, offers free, confidential one-on-one basic literacy instruction to people who are over 16 years of age, out of school, and conversant in English. Most students are between 35 and 55 years of age, and they come from a wide Project Second Chance volunteer tutor Helen Byer with her student, Ike range of economic backgrounds. Since it began in 1984, the program has helped more than 4,000 adults improve their reading, writing, and spelling skills. It has even brought out the poet in Ike, a PSC student for the past 18 years. “Ike started at PSC when he was 54,” says his tutor for the past four years, Helen Byer of Alamo. “He is now 72, and he has discovered through our working together that he has a passion for poetry. He even did a public reading recently – something he could not have ever imagined doing.” Like many PSC students, Ike passed through school, earning a high school diploma despite Volume V - Number 7 the fact that he never learned to PO Box 1335 read. While moving from grade Lafayette, CA 94549 to grade, his learning disabiliTelephone (925) 405-NEWS, 405-6397 ties were overlooked, and he Fax (925) 406-0547 editor@yourmonthlypaper.com fell farther and farther behind. Regardless, he managed to hide Alisa Corstorphine ~ Publisher his disability, and he went on to The opinions expressed herein belong to the writers, and do not reflect that of Lafayette Today. Lafayette Today is successfully support and raise necessarily not responsible for the content of any of the advertising herein,
See Chance cont. on page 11
nor does publication imply endorsement.