Cindy Brogan, Chairman
CindyBB52@yahoo.com
508-558-5439

Click here for the GFWC Education Community Service Program from the GFWC Club Manual.
Click here for the Education Information Please pages.
Click here for the Education Report Cover Sheet.

EDUCATION COMMUNITY SERVICE PROGRAM

The GFWC Education Community Service Program is intended to improve literacy and education awareness in communities at home and around the world.  The Program is broken down into two areas – Collaboration and Partnership.  This is a change from the previous titles of “Focus on Literacy” and “Education in the Community.”  I will attempt to explain these below.

Collaboration: Clubs will research, plan, and implement projects, programs, and advocacy based on their interests and the needs that the club members see and feel are important for their community.

Here are some of the creative projects that Massachusetts Juniors have done in the past:

• GFWC Marlboro Junior Woman’s Club’s “Reality Fair”: In their “MHS Reality Fair” Marlborough High School seniors learned about financial responsibilities by choosing a career, receiving a paycheck and budgeting their income during the fair.
• Pioneer Junior Women’s Club’s “Set Them Free” program: The club encouraged people to take books for all ages off the shelf that are gathering dust and set them free for others to read. The books were placed in a container at a local restaurant with a sign saying, “Set Me Free – Read and Pass Me On.”  To date 350 books have been “set free.”
• GFWC Agawam Junior Women’s Club’ “Bingo for Books” program: The club allocated $200 and ten members volunteered for 41 children from grades K-4 to play bingo in the Agawam Public Library where books were prizes.  Special bingo cards with familiar titles, characters, and authors from children’s literature were used and each child was able to win up to two books.

Become a member of GFWC-Epsilon Sigma Omicron: www.GFWC.org/ESO  and  www.GFWCMA.org/eso.  Through ESO, clubwomen are given direction in planned reading for self-enrichment and personal growth.  Start a book club in your club where members read the books on the ESO list and encourage them to become members of ESO.

Some websites of interest:
Literacy Volunteers of Massachusetts, www.LVM.org, or The Literacy Project, www.LteracyProject.org, for Western MA and English At Large: Literacy and Learning for Life, www.EnglishatLarge.org,  - formerly Eastern MA Literacy Council.  Massachusetts Department of Education, www.DOE.Mass.edu, Top Floor Learning, www.TopFloorLearning.org.

Partnership: Clubs will get involved with organizations that operate at the national or international level and offer unique and customized services such as project materials, speakers, kits, and/or additional information specifically designed for GFWC clubs.

American Library Association                               www.ALA.org                      

• The American Library Association is the voice of America’s libraries and the millions of people who depend on them.  Adopt a library.  Clubs can donate books to their local libraries, volunteer at their library, and recognize librarians during National Library Week, the second week in April

Mentoring USA                                                            www.MentoringUSA.org    

• Become a mentor or donate to the organization.  Use their mentoring materials and techniques to mentor people in your community from ages 7-21.

Reading Rockets/WETA Public Television           www.ReadingRockets.org

• Your club can put together the Family Literacy Bags developed by Reading Rockets, order their free toolkits for your library, download their free print guides for parents, teachers, or librarians, and celebrate Read Across America Day on March 2 with their resources.