*Trees with bright red fall leaves line the fenced street at Rockwood Farm.

With gratitude,

Liz Wurster

Communications Coordinator

*Individuals with vision impairments and those who use screen-readers will face barriers to fully understanding visual content without image descriptions that describe the images used in presentations, social media, or documents, so we are including image descriptions in visual content that does not include words in an effort to make our materials more accessible and inclusive. Read more about it here.

The deep-seated notions and unconscious biases that say we are less valuable

or less capable than our male counterparts are reflected in the pay we receive

and the way we are treated. Employers must create safe and fair workplaces

where people want to work—for their benefit as much as ours.

~Mónica Ramírez, Lawyer and Activist

Hispanic Heritage Month just wrapped up on October 15, and stats like those in the above graphic, as well as those included in this Latina Wage Gap Fact Sheet are a timely reminder that many marginalized groups are still facing an uphill battle for equity in this country. From the title: "Latinas Will Not Reach Pay Equity with White Men until 2207 if Current Trends Persist" (they currently receive 52¢ to the dollar) to the fact that this particular wage gap actually increased from 2021 to 2022 instead of steadily decreasing, it's clear that there is a lot that needs to be done to improve pay equity in the United States. With nearly one-sixth of our students identifying as Latinx/Hispanic, and 72% of those students identifying as female, this pay gap directly effects our students. 

October 5 was the national Latina Equal Pay Day of Action, which, according to Mónica Ramírez in this piece in Time Magazine, is "a day to take stock of the persistent pay gap and to discuss the remedies to this problem." Some of the solutions she suggests are supporting policy changes such as the Paycheck Fairness Act, the Part-Time Workers Bill of Rights Act, the Schedules that Work Act She also suggests changing workplace culture and the narratives about women in our country.

We are so thankful for your support, both in and outside the classroom, to ensure that we can continue to build meaningful partnerships with our students so that they can create better lives for themselves, their families, and the community.

The Benefits of a Lesson Plan

How do you prepare for your class or tutoring session? What do you do when you are working with a student, and things are not going according to plan? Taking the time to write out a lesson plan has numerous benefits, and you can use templates provided by Literacy Source. Here are some reasons why lesson planning is a best practice in teaching.

The first section of many lesson plan templates contains the objectives for the session. Clear objectives allow you to focus your content and stay on track. Sharing your objectives with your student helps you both know what the goal is, and the lesson plan then becomes the path to reaching that goal...

By Megan Dalton, ESOL instructor

Read the entire teaching tip here.

Join Us!

Volunteer Roundtable Discussion 

This school year we are following a series of webinars from the renowned literacy

program, Literacy Minnesota. (Past webinars were on the White Savior Complex

and Trauma-Informed Instruction). After each webinar we are

following up with an online roundtable discussion with volunteers and,

Literacy Source staff and instructors. 

This term's topic is on working with adult learners and how to apply best practices

that support language and skill development for all our learners. The webinar

focused on using an appropriate level of teacher talk and error correction. 

If you missed the webinar you can access the presentation slides here. Everyone is welcome to

come and participate in the discussion.  

Roundtable Discussion: Working with Adult Learners 

Wednesday,October 25th 6 - 7pm 

Join the meeting with this Zoom link 

Questions? Please email Caroline.

Work Skills Tutors Needed 

Program Overview: The new Work Skills Tutoring Program at Literacy Source is designed to help students learn to meet one or more of three related goals: 

• Resume: writing and sending 
• Job applications: filling out and sending 
• Job interviews: practice language and content for in-person or on-line interviews 

Work skills tutors are matched with students once a week for 90 minutes-2 hours, and can meet for up to 10 weeks. Their job is to help students be able to manage one or more of the 3 targeted work skills on their own: this means students need to drive the materials creation, storage and communication. Tutors can help to produce resumes or applications with students but should make a plan with students so that they can (independently) manage the information on their own for future applications or interviews. The goal is not just to create usable documents or applications, but also to support the student in the work skills of managing their materials and being able to apply the skills in a new job application context more independently. 

Interested? Please email Caroline. 

Save the Date! Works Skills Tutor Training: October 30th 4 – 5pm, online. 

October is a great month to give if you're a Microsoft employee.

Every year Microsoft dedicates the month of October to their annual giving campaign.

"In 2022, Microsoft employees around the world generated more donations and volunteer efforts than ever before, raising $248 million for 34,000 nonprofits worldwide, along with 841,000 total volunteer hours."

Microsoft promotes and matches employee giving which makes a huge difference in supporting the mission of nonprofit organizations such as us.

If you know a Microsoft employee, this is a good month to tell them about us and the work we do and see if they would add Literacy Source to the list of nonprofits they are giving to.

Microsoft also matches employee donations of time to nonprofit organizations, so if you are Microsoft employee, Microsoft will match/donate to us based on your volunteer hours.

If you have questions, please reach out to our new Fund Development Manager, Stacey Hastings.

Congratulations - and thank you! - to the following volunteers for reaching a year of service with Literacy Source!

• Britt McCombs
• Megan Allister
• Michael Biasini

Literacy Source partnered with one individual, Shewalul "Lula" Tesfay, who became a new citizen in the past month. She is from Ethiopia. Congratulations, Lula!

Lula is smiling and holding an American flag and her certificate in front of a sign.

Poverty, By America

Staff: Megan Dalton

The Hundred Years' War on Palestine

Staff: Alex Olsen

Demon Copperhead

Staff: Shira Rosen

House of Cotton

Staff: Laura Kalmanson

The Island of Sea Women

Staff: Leesy Latronica

All American Boys

Staff: Liz Wurster

The Moth Seattle GrandSLAM

Thursday, Oct. 19, 8:00pm (Town Hall Seattle, $40)

An ultimate battle of wits and words, The Moth invites winners from previous StorySLAM competitions to vie for the title of CITY GrandSLAM Champion! On this night, listen as ten open mic storytellers share unique, unexpected, and magical true stories. The Moth is true stories, told live and without notes. As an organization, it celebrates the ability of stories to honor the diversity and commonality of the human experience. This curated live event features 10 storytellers who share true stories on an array of topics, creating an experience that is intimate, inspiring, captivating, theatrical, and enlightening.

From Page to Stage: Adapting John Okada's "No-No Boy" for Today’s Theater

Tuesday, Oct. 24, 7pm – 8:15pm (Central Library Level 1 Auditorium, FREE)

John Okada, the author of the seminal Japanese-American novel, ‘No-No Boy,” was born at the Merchants Hotel in Pioneer Square on September 22, 1923. We celebrate the centennial of his birth with a series of three programs. In this second program, Okada biographer Frank Abe shares his work to create a new stage adaptation of “No-No Boy” and engages in a conversation with Seattle Rep Literary Manager and Dramaturg Paul Adolphsen on the challenges adapting a novel published in 1957 for today’s theater audiences. They will be joined by actors who will read scenes from the new adaptation and discuss them with the panelists.

Community Forum with David Neiwert – Addressing Far Right Hate in America

Thursday, Oct. 26, 6:30pm-8:30pm (Everett Civic Auditorium, FREE)

David Neiwert, Seattle-based investigative journalist and author, including The Age of Insurrection: The Radical Right’s Ongoing War on American Democracy and Alt-America: The Rise of the Radical Right in the Age of Trump. Neiwert has won numerous awards, including a National Press Club Award for Distinguished Online Journalism, and an International Latino Book Award for Non-Fiction. Contact Kevin P. Henry at kphmediallc@gmail.com with any questions.

Seattle Forest Week

October 28 - November 4 (Various Locations, FREE)

The City of Seattle along with community organizations are inviting the community to celebrate Seattle’s urban forest with several events throughout the week.  

Our third annual Seattle Forest Week is bookended by two large events. Trees for Seattle will host Arbor Day on October 28 at Jefferson Park. The event includes music, an art installation, kids’ activities, and an opportunity to volunteer in the park, including planting large trees around the playground and parking areas near the Jefferson Park Community Center. On November 4, Green Seattle Partnership will host Green Seattle Day at 16 park locations throughout Seattle to help care for and build healthy forested parks. Volunteers are needed to plant trees, remove weeds, and provide a helping hand to Seattle’s forests on both days.  Several other free events are available throughout the week for community members to learn about the importance of healthy urban forests, plant native plants, and explore Seattle’s forest. Join us for native plant walks, green space tours, and more! All community members are welcome, and no experience is necessary! Seattle Forest Week events are family friendly and open to all ages. 

Our next New Volunteer Orientation (via Zoom) will be on November 1 at either 1pm or 7pm. 

Potential volunteers are invited to register online here. 

Miss any of our past volunteer newsletters? You can access archived newsletters at the bottom of the Volunteer Resources of our webpage.