Beaufort County Library Joins Family Literacy 360 Partnership

Updated January 5th, 2017: The Beaufort County Library has partnered with The Literacy Center and the University of South Carolina Beaufort (USCB) to offer classes that teach English to parents and their children ages 5 to 12.

Family Literacy 360 is an initiative that uses the Parents and Children Together (PACT) model of instruction, was developed by Dr. Elizabeth Brinkerhoff, Assistant Professor and Assessment Coordinator at USCB Department of Education. The goal is to establish and sustain a network of common literacy services across Beaufort County addressing family literacy and providing skills promoting the growth of English capability within the family. The services are designed to improve language development and reading skills, transforming the home into a more active learning environment.

Lessons of one and a half hours in length occur once a week for 6 weeks. Ten families can be accommodated at each site. The classes focus on reading skills parents can use at home, vocabulary and language complexity growth for both parents and children and adhere to South Carolina State Standards. Parents are given a book at each class to read at home to their child and to add to their own collection.

The Beaufort County Library will begin offering the first session of Family Literacy 360 at the Beaufort, Bluffton, and Hilton Head branches in January 2017. Other sites providing classes are The Deep Well Project, Holy Family Catholic Church and Antioch Education Center.

The program is seeking volunteers to serve as Family Literacy tutors. The Literacy Center provides training as well as all lessons, supplies, and materials needed to conduct classes. Tutors need not be teachers. Volunteers are also needed as site coordinators responsible for overseeing the program and collecting data designed to evaluate the impact of the program.

For more information on Family Literacy volunteers or on the Family Literacy 360 initiative please contact Jan O’Rourke, Beaufort County Library Assistant Director at 843-255-6464 or jorourke@bcgov.net.