We’re so excited to share that the wonderful adult literacy team at Sonoma County Library just received an honorable mention from the Urban Libraries Council’s Innovations Award program!
Before 2020, in-person tutor trainings were infrequent and restricted to centralized locations. The length of training, volume of information and inconvenient locations limited participation in the program. Trainings were conducted by available staff members, with limited consistency between trainings. Continuing education for past tutors was irregular. When COVID-19 hit, the adult literacy team had to find a new way to train volunteers consistently and virtually to keep this important program alive and meet the needs of adult learners.
So in 2021, the library used The Impact Suite to create a web-based tutor training program. Topics include orientation, creating a learning plan, fluency, vocabulary, reading comprehension, and phonics. The library worked with CLLS (California Library Literacy Services) and Partners in Reading to incorporate clips from their demonstration videos that model specific tutoring strategies. The modules were hosted on The Impact Suite, which allowed the library to integrate with other reporting required for volunteers and staff.
Outcomes include: new literacy volunteers can access training at point of need across the county; volunteers have continuing education to match new trends and best practices; staff is confident that all tutors have been trained on the same topics in the same way; incorporation of training into The Impact Suite reinforces volunteers’ ongoing use of that tool.
With this recognition from the Urban Libraries Council, the library now has an award-winning online tutor training program! Not too shabby for a training program has been around for less than a year!
There were more than 130 submissions across 10 different categories, representing public libraries throughout the United States and Canada. This is a prestigious competition, where so many innovative ideas are submitted for recognition each year.
Congratulations to the adult literacy team at SCL! Alisa Adams, Christine Whyte, Jovanna Ayala, and Rachel Icaza, each of you are constantly inspiring us to make the Impact Suite better with each passing day. We’re so happy for you — and thanks for the nice words on LinkedIn!
