Caswell County Adult Literacy Issues Addressed
CFMC establishes a referral agreement with Gunn Memorial Library
CFMC’s Pediatrician, Dr. Margaret Martin, in conjunction with the Caswell County Partnership for Children (CCPC) has been involved in the “Reach Out & Read” program, which is a national literacy program whereby she demonstrates the process of how parents can interactively read to their children from age-appropriate books.
Reach Out & Read incorporates demonstrations into well-child medical exams in such a way that parents are given the opportunity to improve communication and learning while reading to their children at home and has quite a bit of evidence behind it that shows increasing numbers of literacy rates and even reducing drop-out rates. It’s a program that Dr. Martin and CFMC are very proud to be a part of.
During the time that Dr. Martin has been involved with this program, she has encountered low literacy rates within the adult population. The challenge that she has faced while showing parents the importance of reading to their children came when she realized some of the parents didn’t know how to read even the simplest of books to their children. This is when she realized CFMC needed to reach out to Gunn Memorial Library in order to address this concern.
Through the hard work and efforts put forth by Dr. Martin, Gunn Memorial Library has agreed to coordinate a list of volunteers who are willing to tutor adults on literacy-related issues.
CFMC will identify adults with literacy challenges and refer them to Gunn Memorial Library’s volunteer program and notify the patient of the date, time and location of the tutoring appointment.
We’re very fortunate to have someone like Dr. Martin here at CFMC. She has identified a challenge within the community and went head first into seeing something done about it. This may not be the silver bullet that fixes the problem entirely, but it’s definitely a step in the right direction. – William Crumpton, Chief Executive Officer, Caswell Family Medical Center
The agreement for adult literacy support between Gunn Memorial Library and Caswell Family Medical Center is for one year but will renew automatically indefinitely.
Anyone wishing to learn more about this program, please contact (336) 694-9331.