Hey everybody,
We recently had a good visit with Carol Ergenbright at the Blount Literacy Council. I think the folks there are wonderful. You can see their passion. There’s Ms. Teaster over there who feels like she’s really making a difference, and they all are over there.
They’re taking someone who maybe has never had education or they come from a family that didn’t value education and have always been on government assistance, and they’re helping them get a second chance. Like Carol said, they’ll help someone with a second, third, or even fourth chance – whatever it takes. Maybe the person takes that GED and gets a better-paying job at an ALCOA or a DENSO or a Clayton Homes or a Ruby Tuesday. Then as they grow, they instill in their children to better themselves and get a good job. And they become self-sufficient and break that cycle of needing assistance.
And a lot of times they have circumstances that people can’t help. There was one gentleman we met who had a condition that had kept him from getting his education, and finally medicine caught up and could treat his condition. Now he’s going back to finish school. That’s wonderful. He could have said, “I’m not gonna’ go back, and I’m gonna’ sit at home and draw a check.” But now he’s getting his GED so that he can go get a good job. And that’s the way it ought to be.
And it’s not the government. It’s people. The government doesn’t need to have anything to do with it. The government needs to just provide buildings and rooms, but it’s people changing people’s lives. Carol was telling us about the Families First funding and how the government has cut the education component because it’s too much paperwork, and that is ridiculous. It’s ridiculous that we as a government – I include myself because I’m a part of that government – cut that instead of looking at ways to get those people educated and off welfare. Blount Literacy Council lost $26,000 in funding all because a government office didn’t want to deal with the paperwork? That’s just insane. We as a United Way shouldn’t stand for that. I don’t know what we could do, but we could sure make a lot of noise.
Carol said there are over 15,000 people in Blount County with less than a ninth grade education. They’re practically illiterate. We consider Blount County a well-educated, rich community, and we have that many people who can’t read? There’s something wrong with that picture, and we need to be doing whatever we can to help those folks learn to read.
Education just opens door for people, and the Blount Literacy Council is helping people open those doors.
I gotta’ run, folks. Thanks for reading.
Blog you soon,
Dave Bennett
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4 comments:
Dave, great comments on what a great job this agency does. A wonderful friend, Jenny Huuto, is on the Board for this agency and I am amazed at all the wonderful things they have accomplished in helping others.
Dave,
I'm a big fan of the blog. I am a little bit confused however when you say the government doesn't need to have anything to do with it. Maybe if the government was more involved they wouldn't cut funds or complain about paperwork? Could you explain a little more by what you meant in this thought process?
Keep on bloggin'!
I think what Dave meant was that government should support these endeavors, but not be so involved that red tape and paperwork hinder their work (like with the $26,000 Blount Literacy Council lost).
I'm pretty sure that's what he meant anyway.
Thanks!
Just to clarify my comment on the government not being involved, I believe there is way to much red tape and bureaucracy involved in our government now, and to many times really good programs get "red taped" to death and then they become bad programs. We need to let the people who are in the trenches do their jobs and not smother them with bureaucracies and paperwork nightmares. Anyway, that is a little insight into my thought process. Thanks for the comment and I appreciate your kind words on the blog. I am really enjoying the visits and the blog so will keep doing so. Thanks again.
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