DurhamCares

2012 Total Operating Budget: $373,000

Q1 Results:

As of 03/31/2012, reporting has not yet been provided.

What

The mission of the Durham Literacy Center is to empower Durham County residents who want to enrich their lives by improving their literacy skills.

Why

The Durham Literacy Center, formerly known as the Durham County Literacy Council, was established in 1985 by a small but committed group of volunteers who recognized that literacy was at the heart of prosperity, health, and community engagement. They established the DLC as a non-profit, community-based organization to address the overwhelming literacy needs of Durham County. By actively monitoring and assessing Durham’s continuously changing community, the DLC has evolved from a small organization to a pivotal provider of educational services for those most in need: adults who lack basic literacy skills, recent immigrants, and out-of-school teenagers. In a little over 20 years, a small but dedicated staff has trained more than 1,200 volunteer tutors who have served more than 10,000 Durham residents. Each year, more than 500 DLC students improve the quality of their lives through tuition-free instruction in reading and writing, as well as in workplace, computer, financial, and health literacy.

Adult Literacy: The Adult Literacy Program serves adults who are illiterate or function at low literacy levels. These are adults, 18 years and older with basic literacy needs. Twenty percent of Durham residents are functioning at “Below Basic Literacy Levels,” and another 29 percent are at only a “Basic Literacy” level. At these levels, adults are not able to perform the kinds of activities required to obtain and maintain jobs that pay living wages and offer opportunities for advancement. The students DLC serve are predominantly African-American (85%). Low literacy levels correspond directly to living in poverty, low incomes, and poor health. Some of DLC’s students either cannot read or experience difficulty reading to their children and helping them with homework, creating a shopping list, reading a newspaper, reading the instructions on a medicine bottle, and/or completing a job application.

English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL): The ESOL program serves the nearly 14% of Durham County residents who speak a language other than English at home,  and the more than 20,000 Durham County residents who report that they speak English less than “very well”(US Census). As Durham County’s Latino population has grown to nearly 12%, DLC has correspondingly served an increasing number of students from Mexico and Central America. Classes are open to students from all language and cultural backgrounds. A growing refugee population has prompted DLC to serve a growing number of refugees from Burma, Bhutan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, Nepal, and Vietnam. Many of DLC’s ESOL students left impoverished backgrounds in their home countries to seek stable work or reunite with their families in the US and are now eking out a living as construction workers, housekeepers, and restaurant employees. More than half of these students have only an elementary or middle school education in their home countries, with some students having no formal schooling whatsoever and are not literate in any language.

Teen Career Academy (TCA): The TCA Program targets the more than 500 youth, ages 16 to 18, who drop out of Durham Public Schools each year and face multiple challenges in life. Many are characterized as at-risk and disadvantaged. These out-of-school teens tend to lack role models, marketable skills and structure in their lives. Many of the students have had experience with the judicial system prior to coming to DLC for assistance. Some students appear to have lost hope because of the recession and from seeing so much unemployment among their relatives and friends, even those with an education. The students who come to DLC for GED classes are 90 percent African-American and 70 percent male. These numbers correlate with the high minority dropout rate in the Durham Public Schools.

Reginald Hodges

Executive Director

Reginald Hodges is a graduate of North Carolina Central University with a degree in education. A three year Peace Corps experience in Sierra Leone led Hodges to a career in education empowerment programs. He has over 35 years work experience with non-profit human resource development programs, primarily in Africa. As a development specialist with the International Foundation for Education and Self-Help, he served as a donor representative for literacy and basic education programs. He also implemented workforce development and post-war recovery programs. While living in Africa, Hodges visited and worked in over 35 countries. Reginald Hodges returned to North Carolina in 2000. He has been Executive Director of the Durham Literacy Center since December 2004. Immediately prior to joining the Durham Literacy Center, Hodges was in adult basic education at Alamance Community College.

Shondra Brewer

Office Manager

Shondra Brewer is a graduate of North Carolina Central University with a degree in Business Administration. Shondra has worked with the Durham Literacy Center for a total of 4 years. Before working with the DLC, she worked in an administrative role with GlaxoSmithKline, and Coventry Health Care.

Gardy Perard

Adult Literacy Program Coordinator

Gardy Perard was the former Adult Literacy Tutor Trainer at the DLC. He has worked for the DLC for 4 years and has completed both the Augustine Project’s Orton-Gillingham training and the NCCCS-sponsored STudent Achievement in Reading (STAR) training. He is also a member of the Augustine Project’s Board of Directors. Gardy has a background in engineering and mathematics and enjoys being a part of the Durham Community.

Daniel Lawrence

ESOL Program Coordinator

Daniel Lawrence served as an AmeriCorps Member with the Durham Literacy Center for two years prior to becoming the ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) Program Coordinator. He has four years experience teaching English as a Foreign Language in several nonprofits in the Triangle area and is fluent in English and Spanish.  Daniel majored in English and Spanish at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  He enjoys living in Durham and performing with his band, Supreme Fiction.

Malcom Reed

Teen Career Academy Program Coordinator

Malcom Reed was born in Atlantic City, New Jersey and attended Ocean County Community College and West Virginia State University where he earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration. Malcom played professional basketball with the Harlem Globetrotters and several other professional teams before retiring because of injuries. Malcom has devoted his life to youth empowerment. In addition to being the Coordinator of the DLC Teen Career Academy, Malcom is the founder of D3 Community Outreach, a non-profit devoted to fostering a healthier community through personal development for children and youth.

Board of Directors:

Edward Wolf, President
Gail Faulkner-Hudson, Vice President
Brian Schneiderman, Treasurer
Jeremy Arkin
Trish Bean
Richard Brown
Matt Car
Vincent Cavallari
Sheila Clapp
Mary Cay Corr
Victor DeMarco
Stephanie Fennell
Ann Gale
Cynthia Gardiner
Trish Henderson
Lori Lumpkin
Dr. Sy Mauskopf
Dr. Kim Mayo
Mary Siedow
Susan Springer
Issac Thomas, Jr.
Kassandra Trower
Mary Wakeford
Jim Weaver
Dale Stouch, Ex-Officio

Durham_Literacy_Center_Final_2011.pdf