September 2023
Hello LitNet Tutors (and prospective ones too!)
It is fall in the Berkshires! Glorious!
We want to express our heaps of gratitude to our amazing corps of tutors for the generous contribution of your time and talent in supporting our wonderful LitNet learners. Without you, there would be no LitNet.
LitNet is an extremely active community! We are currently serving 200+/- learners who are working to learn or improve their English, to achieve a high school equivalency diploma, or to work toward their path to citizenship. This is a record number of learners served simultaneously! It is impressive because it means over 160 tutors– volunteers from our own community, are willing to give their time to work with someone else in our community to open new doors. We do continue to host a waiting list of interested learners but fortunately, we continue to onboard new volunteers, so that no learner has had to wait too long to begin to transform their lives. Over the course of this year, LitNet will serve more than 350 learners in total! Now that is impressive.
While our predominant services are ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) tutoring, in 2023 we have some exciting new programs we want to highlight. For example, we intend to reinvigorate our high school equivalency program by improving our outreach for those who wish to achieve this goal. This will involve conducting research into best practices for working with adult learners, learners who may have left school due to challenges such as trauma, learning disabilities, or economics. After we know more about what these learners need to bolster their success, we will create a relevant workshop to provide the best support for our tutors in providing for these adult learners.
Over the summer, LitNet conducted research into the high school dropout rate in our county and why students tend to leave school. Now, knowing more, we are delving into what LitNet can do to support learners to stay in school or to provide the best approach to those who have left but then make the choice to achieve their high school equivalency with support from LitNet.
This summer we also learned more about the services provided locally for first-generation college goers and their families. What support is available in our county? How do families learn about these services? Is there a piece of this puzzle that is missing and how might LitNet help on that front? We are deep into plans on how LitNet can help to collate this important information and deliver it in the best format to those families and learners who are interested in post-secondary education and/or career options
We will keep you posted along the way! We hope to see you at LitNet events and meetings but please know our door is always open to you. Thank you all for your part in transforming lives. We are so very grateful to our tutors. What would we be without you?
With a heart full of gratitude,
Leigh Doherty
Executive Director
