Everyone's working their fingers to the bone, as you can see by Phil's pacing as he figures out what to do next. 

On a more serious note, we have increased our student enrollment.  We have more placed workers and volunteers constantly working toward reaching anyone in need of our services.  We hope this information will help you keep up to date on READ's recent happenings:   

• We'll soon have another workshop to train inmate tutors at Ouachita River Correctional Unit (ORCU).  Our last was in March, 2011.  We trained 29 tutors.  The inmate tutors are trained, then we assess the inmate students.  A Certified Religious Assistant (CRA) from the free world and ORCU literacy clerks match the team.  Their schedules are set to meet for reading and/or math instruction. 
  
• Almost three years ago our Board of Directors voted to expand into Saline and Clark Counties as well as continuing to serve Hot Spring County.  Saline County Literacy Council closed and Clark County did not have a literacy program.  As the READ Program, our services can be easily identified in all three counties while remaining Literacy Council of Hot Spring County, Inc. for business purposes.  It is our pleasure to announce that Clark County Literacy Council will be completely independent of READ during this fiscal year.  They have received seed funding.  They have applied to receive an AmeriCorps Member who will be placed in their county through Arkansas Reads/Arkansas Literacy Councils.  We're very proud of the hard work and dedication from the Clark County group to attain this goal!  We will continue to work with the adult education centers in all three counties.     
  
• January 2011 was the Grand Opening of our Benton/Saline County office at 903 Newcomb.  Now we have multiple tutoring locations in Saline County.  The office provides us with a base for materials, tutoring, training and more.  We are receiving student referrals through the Dollar General/ProLiteracy referral program, Benton Services Center as well as volunteers through VolunteerMatch.com.  We have lots to do from recruiting and training tutors to meeting with local businesses to recruit partners.  We are very excited about this expansion.  The Benton  office is being used once a month as a meeting place for a Department of Human Services Transitional Program in Saline County.   
  
• Once again and as always, Arkansas Literacy Councils, Inc. (ALC) has come to the rescue of local literacy programs.  They placed AmeriCorps members through the Arkansas Service Commission into programs requesting those positions.  We will have three AmeriCorps members for the oncoming year that begins October 1, 2011.  The AmeriCorps tutor, recruit students and tutors and assist with tutor training. 
  
• AARP Enrollees -- we hope to acquire an enrollee in the coming year when he/she becomes available.
  
• English as a Second Language (ESL) is a method which uses English speaking tutors.  Tutors can teach English to speakers of other languages without knowledge of each student's native language.  It works!  With the rise of non-English speaking people in this country, there is a greater need for ESL programs.  We always have a need for ESL tutors.  It is a rewarding challenge to work with an ESL student.  ¿Usted habla español?  We currently have one ESL class in Malvern that meets at a local church and multiple classes/individuals meeting with our AmeriCorps in Clark County.   
  
• We are ending our year in which we received a National Book Fund grant (NBF) for approximately $4,200.00 in New Reader's Press Materials.  We are very grateful that ProLiteracy chose our three counties as recipients.  (New Reader's Press is the publisher for ProLiteracy.)  The needed materials have been a blessing for our students and tutors.  There is a waiting period between NBF applications.  We did not qualify to apply for the NBF grant this fiscal year per that waiting period.