Literacy can be the key to a successful life, and the
Warder Literacy Center helps people learn how to break down barriers.
David Smiddy, the center’s executive director, says the program focuses on functionality, “the ability to be effective in listening, speaking, reading, and writing.”
“Your ability to do those things enables you to accomplish your life goals,” Smiddy says. “For a kid, that life goal is to get to grade level in reading. For an adult, it could mean speaking well enough for your employment or reading and writing well enough to pass the GED.”
The center offers five programs: adult basic and literacy education, English for speakers of other languages, teaching children to read, GED instruction, and PICK-PACK, which allows children to take home a backpack filled with books and activities for the family. The family keeps the contents and returns the backpack so it can be filled again for another recipient.
Smiddy says that in a normal year, the center will serve about 160 people, split pretty evenly between adults and children. Of the adults, about two-thirds are taking English as a second language classes.
How long someone stays with the program depends on their goals. A child who attends and does the work regularly can often advance two grade levels in reading ability in one year. Adults usually stay with the program one to three years, depending on their goal and the other demands on their time.
Chris Routzahn, building manager at the
NTPRD Chiller ice rink, has been taking classes at the center for a year. He wants to get his GED, which he says would be like lifting a weight of his back that has been bothering him for 20 years.
He says the staff and volunteers have been very helpful.
“I appreciate their patience with me,” Routzahn says. “They are always very encouraging and always reassuring me that I can do this. The staff and tutors are amazing.”
Volunteer tutors are crucial to the center’s mission, Smiddy says. The center usually has about 50 tutors but is down to 35 currently. The center holds volunteer training 10 times a year and is “always recruiting.”
Volunteers are asked to make a one-year commitment. When they start, they do two days of training in general literacy information, strategies to build abilities, and the center’s programs. Once trained, the volunteer will meet with a student for one hour, twice a week. After completing six months in the program, a volunteer has another day of training and then can take on a second student.
Most volunteers stay with the program for two or three years, but a few for much longer, such as Randy Bailey, who started as a tutor in 2012.
Bailey had recently retired and was looking for a way to give back to the community. In 2016, Bailey also became a member of the center’s board, which he says has given him the “opportunity to meet some of the most remarkable people in our community.”
Bailey tutors boys, ages 7 to 10, and usually has two that he meets with every week. He says the volunteers face challenges, including overcoming learning disabilities or even just days where the volunteers or attendees are really tired.
But, he says, seeing people succeed makes it all worthwhile.
“The program fosters friendship with the students as you work, one-on-one, and they see their progress,” Bailey says. “The reward always comes when students test out at grade level and are notified that they will be leaving the program.
“I had one boy that I worked with who began to cry and excused himself when he was told that he would not have to come to the Center any longer. … I always want each boy to feel this kind of success coming to the center.”
In addition to Smiddy, the center has three other part-time employees and an annual budget of $140,000. Funding comes from grants, individual donations, special events, and fees paid by students. Each student is asked to contribute something, whether money or bringing items the center can use, such as paper towels or snacks.
And, the Center – located at 137 E. High St. – provides to the community with more than just educational services. It also maintains its significant historic building.
Industrialist Benjamin Warder commissioned the building of a public library as a memorial to his parents and gave the structure to the city of Springfield. The imposing red sandstone edifice served as a public library from 1890 to 1989, when the
Clark County Public Library established the current main branch at 201 S. Fountain Ave.
The following year, the
Clark County Literacy Coalition began using the location. The city still owns the building, but the Literacy Coalition maintains it.
“It’s a costly building to take care of, but an ideal building for what we’re doing,” Smiddy says. “People drive by all the time and say to themselves, ‘I wonder what’s going on in there.’ “
Learn more about the center’s programs at their
Facebook page or website
clarkcountyliteracy.org.