Mollie M. Murphy Dale to manage Family Literacy Program for English Skills Learning Center

English Skills Learning Center, a non-profit English language tutoring organization established in 1988, today announced that Mollie M. Murphy Dale has joined the organization to manage its new Family Literacy Program.

SALT LAKE CITY (PRWEB) December 12, 2003 --English Skills Learning Center, a non-profit English language tutoring organization established in 1988, today announced that Mollie M. Murphy Dale has joined the organization to manage its new Family Literacy Program.

The Family Literacy Program is designed to meet the special needs of Afghani and Somali/Bantu refugees. Many of these families have lost a husband or father to strife in their home country and many also are unable to read or write in any language.

Barbara Fish, Executive Director of English Skills Learning Center commented Such students may not perform well in the structured adult ESL classes offered by the government through school districts and so, in response to requests from various refugee resettlement agencies, we have initiated this program with seed funding from the Ashton Family and R.Harold Burton Foundations."

English is key to survival and success in the U.S." continued Fish. In our regular program we offer a unique service of one-to-one and small group tutoring free of charge to refugees and immigrants anywhere in the Salt Lake Valley. Our trained volunteer tutors provide individualized, goal-oriented instruction at times and in locations which are convenient for both parties. In the case of these families, we feel the best location is in their home and the most productive method to work with the whole family so that they can help and encourage each other."

Ms. Dale joins ESLC from the International Rescue Committee where she was an AmeriCorps*VISTA volunteer and worked extensively with Sudanese and Somali women. She has B.A. in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages and is working on a Masters in Intercultural Relations. She also spent a year in Korea teaching English to both adults and children. She has taught ESL in Minnesota, Vermont and Utah.

The increase in the number of refugees and immigrants coming to Utah to make a better life for themselves and their families means that the ESL Center has a continual need for more volunteer tutors and, of course, funding to provide the special language services needed by these newcomers to America.

The English Skills Learning Center, formerly Literacy Volunteers of America -- Wasatch Front, is an affiliate of and accredited by ProLiteracy America, formed through the 2002 merger of Literacy Volunteers of America and Laubach Literacy. We are funded through government grants, charitable foundations, and the generosity of local companies and individuals.
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