Local & State Headlines

Organizatons work together for literacy

• A partnership among several Albany organizations helps Dougherty County residents prepare for their GEDs.

Joshua Brown

ALBANY — Patrick Waller has a steady job and gets his paycheck like clockwork every week. But when the opportunity arose to get his GED, he jumped at the “chance to better myself.”

Waller, a 38-year-old employee at D&D Kitchen Center, is attending a workforce literacy initiative spearheaded by the United Way he heard about through his wife, who works for the agency.

“(I just wanted) to better myself and the opportunity became available, so I took it,” he said in a recent interview. “I wasn’t even really planning on it — they offered the course and I found out about it, so I went ahead and started going.”

Waller is one of about 20 people registered for the program, United Way President Dwayne Myles said. He organized and developed the initiative after a representative with MillerCoors (formerly Miller Brewing Co.) asked him about the community’s needs.

MillerCoors spokeswoman Lisa Quezada said she wanted to see a program developed that would fill a need in the community for which the brewery could provide funding.

“We’ve been long-time supporters of the United Way there in Albany. We have the employee giving campaign and always give an annual contribution in conjunction with what employees raise,” she said. “I was down in Albany and I talked to Dwayne. ... I said we were interested in having a literacy program started there.”

Grants from MillerCoors will provide funding for the program for two years, at $20,000 a year. Myles said the United Way was surprised when the brewery announced at a recent meeting that it was providing not just one year’s funding, but two.

For the United Way, the program falls under its Empowering Individuals and Families Toward Self- Sufficiency outreach, while for MillerCoors it falls under its employment outreach section.

Program enrollees take an initial assessment so instructors can know at what education level the students should be learning at and determine specific areas in which they need improvement. Every several weeks the students are reassessed to monitor their progress, said Linda Coston, Albany Technical College associate president of Academic Affairs and instructor in the program.

“What we’re doing with this particular group of students is we target instruction based on their particular area of need,” she said. “That’s one of the things I like to do is start new programs and get a feel for what the needs are.”

Program officials want to keep about 20 students enrolled in the initiative at all times, and enrollees will finish on different timelines, Myles said. The United Way pays for the cap and gown and for students to take the GED test, he said.

Facilities for student use are provided by Goodwill, which was contacted by ATC officials after the partnership began to develop, Media and Events Manager Kari Finley said.

“In the past we’ve had an agreement with Albany Technical College for the same thing, provide them the space to hold GED classes,” she said. “When MillerCoors came to the United Way ... we were contacted once again to see if we could provide the space for this more formalized program.

“That’s basically what our career center is there for. That’s how we give back to the community.”

Anyone wanting further information about enrolling in the program can call Albany Tech at (229) 430 1620 or stop by the Goodwill location on South Slappey Boulevard.

More Headlines>>