July 2019
In this Issue:
  • Welcome Heidi Frankson to the WL Team
  • Welcome John Johnson to the Wisconsin Literacy Board
  • 2019 Community-University Partnership Award Recipient
  • Pioneers with "Raw Land" by Deb Helquist
  • Grant Opportunities from the US Department of Education
Wisconsin Literacy News
Welcome Heidi Frankson to WL Team
We are excited to welcome Heidi Frankson as the new Fund Development Manager. Heidi has more than 20 years of experience as a nonprofit fundraising professional. She has served in a number of fundraising positions including the corporate development manager for the Charlotte Symphony and as development director for both the Marilyn Horne Foundation in New York and the WonderLab Museum of Science, Health and Technology in Bloomington, Indiana.

She earned her Bachelor’s of Music and Master’s of Music degrees in Vocal Performance from Indiana University and currently serves as national Chairman, of Sigma Alpha Iota Philanthropies, Inc. She is active in the Rotary Club of Madison.

Heidi recently relocated to Sun Prairie with her husband Michael Hackett who leads the jazz program at University of Wisconsin at Whitewater. They have a son, Eric, who is an aspiring jazz trumpeter.
Welcome John Johnson to the Wisconsin Literacy Board
We welcome John Johnson, PhD, Director of Literacy and Mathematics and Director for Academic Standards at the Department of Public Instruction.

John directs the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction’s Literacy and Mathematics Department. At the WI DPI, he leads the state’s work in the areas of literacy, English/language arts, and mathematics. Also, John leads all work on academic standards, and chairs the State Superintendent’s Standards Review Council. He has managed major aid programs, grants, and budgets in the millions of dollars. He serves on the Executive Board of the WASCD (Wisconsin Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development).

Previously, he served for thirteen years as the Communications Director in the Office of the State Superintendent at the Department of Public Instruction. In that role, John served as a member of the senior leadership team through the State Superintendent’s Cabinet and Policy Team. Additionally, he was the State Coordinator of the Teacher of the Year and Kohl Fellowship/Scholarships Programs, and directed the agency’s publication sales operations.
2019 Community-University Partnership Award Recipient
Last month, University of Wisconsin Chancellor Blank presented the Wisconsin Health Literacy team with the 2019 Community-University Partnership Award from . 

A big thanks to Dr. Paul Smith of University of Wisconsin Madison. We appreciate your partnership!

Congratulations to all the 2019 award recipients and the outstanding work you’re doing throughout Wisconsin. 
Member News
Pioneers with "Raw Land"
by Deb Helquist

My husband gave me this analogy a few summers ago when I was feeling excited about what was going on in our Sawyer County Literacy endeavors, and yet, I was feeling somewhat discouraged about a few things not progressing as quickly or as “greatly” as I had hoped. This is a paraphrase of what he said to me:

You are making real progress with real people working towards real goals. Officially engaging learners in actually learning, or you’re preparing, even waiting to tutor—and who might be the next one?  

You are pioneers

Think about what the rough, uncleared, land was like when the pioneers moved here. You are not like someone who buys a piece of land that has already been cleared, plowed, tilled, and so on. It’s one thing to plant seeds in a field that’s already been prepared and waiting, clean and clear. What you’re doing is different! It’s not merely subsistence farming, the bare minimum…there will be a crop of much, much more in time. 

With Literacy, you are taking a piece of raw land like the pioneers and turning it into a real farm. That is similar to clearing the trees and doing all with simple equipment, digging up the rocks, pulling stumps, hard and sometimes lumpy land in places-- plowing, tilling, cultivating, planting small seeds of this kind and that and making it useful. Making it good for many purposes. 

And you must remember, you are starting with a very small plot here and a small plot there. 

It’s slow work. It’s long and hard work.

But it's worth it.

You may not see the full grown plants and harvest, but you will know that you are making real progress with real people.  
Success Stories
Meet Darryl from Literacy Chippewa Valley
Darryl was in and out of the foster care system throughout his childhood. As an adult, he moved to a home for adults with intellectual disabilities.
  
When he came to LCV (Literacy Chippewa Valley), he wanted help with reading and to get his GED.  He ended up with more confidence, basic literacy and math skills, and a job thanks to the help of Dorothy, his tutor.

Member Spotlight:
Literacy Chippewa Valley
This month's member spotlight falls on LCV (Literacy Chippewa Valley). LCV offers a number of literacy programs - family literacy, one-to-one tutoring, and correctional literacy programs. 

Resources and Funding Opportunities
Grant Opportunities from the US Department of Education
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The U.S. Department of Education is offering two grant programs with July 2019 application deadlines. Please click the links below to learn more about how these grant programs can support your local program.

The Project Prevent grant program provides grants to local educational agencies (LEAs) to increase their capacity to help schools in communities with pervasive violence to better address the needs of affected students and to break the cycle of violence in those communities. The application deadline is July 15, 2019

The School Climate Transformation Grant Program--Local Educational Agency Grants (SCTG-LEA) provides competitive grants to LEAs to develop, enhance, or expand systems of support for, and technical assistance to, schools implementing a multi-tiered system of support, for improving school climate. The SCTG-LEA deadline is July 22, 2019

If you have questions about the grant programs please contact Project.Prevent@ed.gov or LEA.SCTG19@ed.gov.
Thank You
Please send news you want to share to  info@wisconsinliteracy.org so we can include it in the August 2019 e-news.
 
Thank you for your support!

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Wisconsin Literacy | (608) 257-1655 | info@wisconsinliteracy.org | wisconsinliteracy.org