These programs often address the very basics of learning,
especially literacy. Even in countries such as the United States, as much
as half of the adult population has graduated from school without the
literacy skills necessary to compete for the most desirable jobs, or to
exercise their full responsibilities as citizens.
Whether an American inner-city neighborhood or a South
African township, a community cannot prosper without effective education.
Applied Scholastics has provided training and support services to community-based
programs that have helped thousands of students achieve success.
The World Literacy Crusade
The World Literacy Crusade (WLC) arose out of the ashes
of the civil disturbance that swept Los Angeles in 1992. Reverend Alfreddie
Johnson, minister to an inner-city community, knew something must be done,
and done quickly. He was convinced that the darkness that had come over
the city was not caused by crime, drugs or gangs, but by something far
more fundamental: illiteracy.
Days after the outbreak, community leaders Marcine and
Fred Shaw, introduced Rev. Johnson to Applied Scholastics and the Study
Technology of L. Ron Hubbard. "I realized that Hubbard's breakthrough
study method was the missing link keeping inner city youth from succeeding
in learning and in life," Rev. Johnson said. "Further, it explained
why other educational initiatives failed."
In May 1992, Rev. Johnson teamed up with Fred Shaw to
found the first WLC office in Compton, a city in the greater Los Angeles
area. Applied Scholastics trained five volunteer tutors and the project
was launched in a local church hall.
"The WLC is where the rubber meets the road in terms
of solving illiteracy problems in America," Carolyn Staley, deputy
director of the National Institute for Literacy, told the Christian Science
Monitor. "They have gone outside the box of conventional approaches
to give people the skills which will help them help themselves."
Billy Wright had been living in a homeless shelter, abusing
drugs and alcohol. He was functionally illiterate when he came to WLC.
In less than a year, he improved his reading comprehension to college
level and obtained excellent scores on an entrance test for nurse training
at a Los Angeles medical center.
The impressive results of World Literacy Crusade have
won support from both community workers and governments, as well as music
legend Isaac Hayes, who has become a spokesperson for the group.
Today, WLC includes more than 30 volunteer literacy programs
in the U.S., Canada, Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia and
Ghana.
Isaac
Hayes, International Spokesperson, World Literacy Crusade, has said, "What
is the World Literacy Crusade accomplishing in concrete terms? Here's a
statistic: of the more than 700 young people who have gone through the program
in the last few years, only one has died. Two have gone to jail. Out of
a typical sampling of 500 inner city youth, Rev. Johnson would normally
expect as many as 45 to die and at least one hundred to go to jail. Each
year."
H.E.L.P. — The Hollywood Education and Literacy
Project
According to the California Department of Education, Los
Angeles County experiences a school drop-out rate of 41 percent. Many
of these youth end up on the streets of Hollywood, in the company of runaways
who have come from other cities to search for their dreams. Instead of
fame, they find a life of prostitution, drugs and gangs.
Kinder Hunt, a resident of Hollywood for many years, decided
to do something to turn this situation around. In the heart of Hollywood,
she founded the Hollywood Education and Literacy Project, a community
literacy and mentoring project that provides one-on-one tutoring.
The program delivers a full literacy and learning curriculum.
Included in the program is the Literacy Course, which features a step-by-step
phonics program that can take a student from complete illiteracy to reading
well in a matter of three to six weeks.
"I was left back in second grade and my grades were
terrible," said nine-year-old Yashira Mari Barrosa Diaz. "I
had D's and F's in almost all my classes and I hated school and I would
not do my homework." Things changed after she completed the Learning
How to Learn course at H.E.L.P. "I no longer fight with my mom
and grandmother about homework or going to school and best of all, my
grades are much better. I've gotten A's and B's on all the recent exams
because I am really learning."
Although H.E.L.P works primarily with school-age children,
it has been effective with students of all ages, assisting people from
ages 4 to 85. The program has attracted funding from the California Governor's
office as a part of the California Youth Mentoring Initiative. It has
an active role in the America's Promise program.
There are no charges for H.E.L.P. services — it
is a strictly volunteer, community based organization that is known for
the individual care and attention it provides. Often, H.E.L.P. students
become trained as tutors themselves and volunteer time to help others.
