Happy Thanksgiving!
We hope you can take some time this week to relax with loved ones and to give thanks for everything that enriches your life.
At ProLiteracy, we are thankful for the many ways we are supported in our efforts to build better lives and communities through adult literacy. Our CEO Mark Vineis took time to reflect on this last week. But we are also thankful for the many ways our lives and communities are enriched through the work we do, including:
Learning About Other Cultures
Immigrants who have come to live in our country bring amazing traditions, foods, and cultures to share with us, creating more vibrant communities nationwide. We are lucky to meet many of these people in our English classes, giving them the language skills to thrive in the US as our new neighbors.
New Technologies
It’s amazing what technology can now do, even within just the past few years. By embracing innovations like artificial intelligence, we’ve found new ways to help learners engage with lessons through creation of things like personalized learning paths, pronunciation models, and improved accessibility. That’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Libraries
Of course, libraries do so much to promote and partner with adult literacy and education programs. But beyond that incredible service, they do so much more. Libraries open the world to people of any age, gender, religion, or ethnicity through books, computers, learning programs, guest speakers, art programs, and community meetings —just to name a few. They ensure every person has access to the same information, tools, and resources. It’s no surprise that more often than not, a strong community is also home to a strong library.
Nonprofit Networks
Like libraries, our community nonprofits are truly amazing. We watch in awe as they help people in need shed some of their stress so they can improve their quality of life with the freedom to focus on other aspects of their life, like enrolling in an education program. And, when social service organizations collaborate to offer services, that’s when the real magic happens and we see already amazing people do amazing things.
For these and so many more reasons, we are thankful today and every day to work in literacy and education.