“Everyone has a skill or a talent,” says Lee Chase, Adult Program Coordinator at Literacy Mid-South. “Everybody's good at something and everybody has something that they are proud of. There seems to be a stigma that if adults don’t have literacy skills, they are lacking.”
Literacy Mid-South is running a campaign till the end of this year to address the stigma attached to low literacy for adults. The “Share your Skill” campaign wants to promote adults’ skills and talents by hosting “Share your Skill” stations at two different libraries per month and at other community places/special events.
“We want adults to participate, but children are welcome to participate as well,” explains Chase. People can go to the “Share your Skill” station, get a bookmark, write or draw their skill, and place it in a box. “When the campaign is over, the idea is to do a big art project with all the bookmarks that are filled out.”
The response to this campaign has been astounding so far. “When we go at the end of the month and pick the bookmarks up from the library, we see a lot of great drawings. It’s a big excitement people have had,” Chase says. “We have been to a couple of [community] events so far, and we have some more planned for this summer.
“If you don’t want to write or draw your skill, there are instructions on the bookmark with a phone number that you can call and leave a voicemail with your skill” continues Chase. “Or there is also a QR code that can be scanned so that your skill can be shared that way. The idea is to celebrate all these different skills that we learned about from the people in the Mid-South area. This is a community building initiative.”
Here's a list of #ShareYourSkill901 bookmark library stations:
July: Hollywood (1530 N. Hollywood St.) & Whitehaven (4120 Millbranch Rd.)
August: South (1929 South 3rd St.) & Cordova (8457 Trinity Rd.)
September: Randolph (3752 Given Ave.) & Cherokee (3300 Sharpe Ave.)
October: Parkway Village (4655 Knight Arnold Rd.) & East Shelby (7200 East Shelby Dr.)
November: Cornelia Crenshaw (531 Vance Ave.) & Bartlett (5884 Stage Rd.)
December: Gaston Park (1040 S. Third St.) & North (1192 Vollintine Ave.)
January: Levi (3676 Hwy 61 South) & Cossitt/Downtown (33 South Front St.)
Literacy Mid-South invites community event organizers to reach out to Lee Chase (lchase@literacymidsouth.org) if they want to place a “Share your Skill” station at the event. Literacy Mid-South provides many resources including tutoring services to promote literacy skills in an effort to achieve a 100 percent literacy for all in the Mid-South region.
For more information on “Share your Skill” campaign, visit literacymidsouth.org/resources/share-your-skill/
For more information on Literacy Mid-South, visit literacymidsouth.org