| | An official proclamation by president Joe Biden declaring April as Arab American Heritage Month in 2023 honors the rich heritage and contributions to American society. At Literacy Source, 6% of our students identify as Arab, hailing from ten different countries. | |
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April is Celebrate Diversity Month, and at Literacy Source, we are proud to honor the incredible diversity within our student community. Our classrooms are filled with learners from 58 different countries, speaking 68 languages, all working together towards a common goal—gaining education and skills to build a better, more hopeful future.
70% of our students saw literacy gains last year, an important step towards reaching our vision that all adults in King County have the literacy skills they need to create generational change. And despite the many challenges they face, they achieved an 83% class completion rate—a remarkable testament to their dedication. Every lesson, every project, and every achievement reflects their perseverance and the power of education to change lives.
We are so excited to celebrate our students with YOU at our fundraising Luncheon April 24. This year's theme, Writing Our Next Chapter, signifies a critical and challenging period of growth and expansion for us. We've got a new building with facilities that better meet our growing student population and we're raising staff salaries to support our amazing group of staff. Yet, we're also writing our next chapter in a way we didn't anticipate. New threats to immigrant safety. New uncertainty in education funding. And, we are making sure our students feel safe when they come to our classes by creating Know Your Rights lessons to equip them with the tools they need to manage potential encounters with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. By protecting their data. By being their every day to help them learn and grow.
Thank you for being part of our community and for supporting our mission to provide accessible, high-quality foundational education for adults to create lasting opportunities for themselves, their families, and their communities.
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Cat Howell
Co-ED, Educational Director
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Shira Rosen
Co-ED, Managing Director
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Winter Term Student Projects
Our students have been putting their learning into action in powerful ways. Some of our ESOL students shared financial advice and explored career pathways by creating digital timelines on Padlet, while others wrote problem-solution essays inspired by the UN Sustainable Development Goals, choosing topics such as Climate Action, Good Health and Well-Being, and Sustainable Cities & Communities.
In our Ready to Work program, students analyzed paychecks, practiced money-saving strategies, and used Clockify to log work hours—building real-world skills to support their employment goals. As part of our "Problems at Work and Paychecks" unit, students read a serialized story about an employee at SEA-TAC solving workplace challenges, integrating phonics skills and workplace vocabulary. They also tackled real-world math problems related to wages, practiced using two-factor authentication, and learned how to effectively communicate workplace concerns.
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Save the Date: Writing the Next Chapter
Join us for our in-person Literacy Source Luncheon: Writing the Next Chapter.
We have much to celebrate and would love to have you with us as we hear from our keynote speaker, Will Durden, the Director of Basic Education for Adults in Washington State, and several of our students. We will be joined again by radio personality Marina Rockinger, as our M.C. for the event.
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Details:
Thursday, April 24,2025 at The Mountaineers.
Doors open at 11:30, the program is from 12-1pm.
If you’re interested in volunteering at this event, please email analisaj@literacysource.org. We are looking for table hosts, greeters, help with registration, set-up, tear-down, and more. If you are interested in sponsoring this event, please email staceyh@literacysource.org.
We hope to see you there!
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This month we'd like to spotlight Peter, a volunteer in our Abe/GED program.
Where are you originally from? If you’re not from Seattle what brought you here?
I’m originally from the frigid prairies of Saskatchewan, though I went to school in Toronto and lived there for almost a decade enjoying all the wonderful food and culture. As part of school, I did some internships here in Seattle with Adobe over the summer and fell in love with the city...
You can read Peter's full interview here.
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New Partnership
Literacy Source is happy to share a new partnership with the Pacific Northwest Hospitality Training Program (PNW8) to offer Culinary Math classes to its members as they ramp up for the busy tourist season in Seattle.
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LS instructor, Britt McCombs is currently developing curriculum and will be teaching three short term workshops over the spring. The series, titled "Ratios to Recipes: Calculations for Cooks" will give each one a different focus, yet build upon one another in a contextualized program. In these sessions, participants will be doing hands on activities to improve their math skills around such topics as scaling recipes, converting between metric and imperial measurements, and calculating yields.
We're excited to expand our growing workplace offerings to those in the hospitality industry.
| | Advocacy: Protecting the Digital Equity Act in Washington State | |
Digital literacy is a a high priority for us at Literacy Source, and an issue that directly impacts our students. The Digital Equity Act (DEA), with an allocated $2.75 billion budget, is the largest investment in digital inclusion efforts to date. The DEA is the most active systemic approach to closing the digital divide in US history. There is great potential that this essential funding, which will support communities across the country in closing the digital divide, is at risk of being cut, paused, or endlessly delayed.
For more information on state funding for the act in Washington and ways you can get involved, go here.
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| AmeriCorps Appreciation Month! | It was AmeriCorps week last month and we want to give a shout out to our AmeriCorps members! Did you know there are over 200,000 individuals serving in AmeriCorps making a difference in communities across America? Literacy Source is proud to be awarded two members every year. This year our members are, Darlene Lytle, ABE & Digital Literacy Instructional Support, and Wing-Sea Poon, Citizenship Instructional Support. We do our best to make this a rewarding learning experience as we want our members to leave with new skills and experience to support them in their career paths. We really appreciate their dedication and hard work in helping us make a difference in the lives of our students. Thank you, Darlene and Wing-Sea! | |
| Ready to engage further with Literacy Source? | | To make a difference in the lives of others | | To invest in something that makes a lasting impact | | To have a strong and thriving workplace | | | | |
