FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

 

What year did Marlboro Literacy Council begin?

We do not have an exact date of when Marlboro Literacy Council began. There is no exact date pin pointed in the bylaws or minutes. The earliest records go as far back as the early 70’s. 

 

How many current board members?

There are five current board members.

 

What is the organizational structure of Marlboro Literacy Council?

The Literacy Coordinator, Freida Ocean, runs the day-to-day operations.  The governing body is the board, which consists of members, a chair, a co-chair, a secretary, and a treasurer.

 

Does the high school graduate rate affect the literacy rate?

The National Center for Education Statistics shows that the majority of people who do not complete high school have basic or below-basic literacy skills. 26% of prison inmates nationwide had parents who had not completed high school, and 37% of inmates had not completed high school themselves

 

Define illiteracy.

Webster defines illiteracy as the inability to read or write

 

How can people support Marlboro Literacy Council if you do not want to volunteer?

Follow us on our social media outlets to stay abreast of current events and share our story with your friends. Monetary donations are always welcomed. We are a nonprofit, so all monetary donations are tax-deductible. We also have a wish list on Amazon.com for various products for our students and tutors. You can also spread the word about the wonderful things that our organization does for the community.

 

Why is including technology in your rebranding process so important?

Including technology in the branding process is important because technology is redefining how we view literacy. There is also computer literacy, which affects how we can now download books, magazines, etc to our smart devices. It will also allow us to promote computers and related technologies as tools for improving the quality of English/Language Arts instruction.

 

Do you have a book club? If so, how can I get involved?

Marlboro Literacy Council would love to implement several book clubs for all ages. At the present time we do not have the manpower to manage a productive book club at any level. Hopefully, through the awareness through social media and more targeted events to gain volunteers, we will get a volunteer to manage the book clubs.

 

What is the difference between Marlboro Literacy Council and Marlboro County School District’s Family Literacy Program?

Marlboro Literacy Council serves the entire county in teaching them the basic literacy skills. Marlboro County School District’s Family Literacy Program only serves those who do not have a GED or high school diploma and have children under the age of 5 who have not yet gone to

kindergarten. We both are housed in Marlboro County Adult and Community Education Center.  Our programs work really well together.

 

What is the current illiteracy rate of Marlboro County?

The current illiteracy rate as of December 2014 is 14.6%.

 

How do the powers that be come up with the illiteracy rate?

Literacy statistics go to the US Census Bureau. The education attainment from the 2010 census was calculated differently than before according to the Budget and Control Administration.  In the past they did a county break down of the adults with less than 5th grade education. The 2010

census did it differently.  They only did adults with less than 9th grade education of 25 and older adults. This is debatable because just because an adult has less than a high school equivalency does not mean they are illiterate or even functional illiterate.  

 

How many volunteers does Marlboro Literacy Council currently have?

We currently only have 20 volunteers.

 

How many students do you currently serve in your programs?

We currently serve over 100 students in our current program. In order to serve more, we must recruit more volunteers.

 

Where are your literacy centers located?

Our literacy learning labs are located in every town throughout Marlboro County, except in Blenheim.  The Wallace Family Life Center is our Wallace location. It is open Mondays and Wednesdays from 9:00AM-12:00PM. McColl Elementary/Middle School is our McColl

location. It is open Mondays and Tuesdays from 6:00PM-8:00PM.  Bennettsville has several locations. The main center is located at Marlboro County Adult and Community Education Monday-Friday 8:00AM-12:00PM and Tuesdays and Thursdays 12:30PM-2:30PM. There is also

a center located at Bennettsville Housing Mondays and Wednesdays from 1:00PM-3:00PM. The Olive Chrome Center in Bennettsville is open Mondays and Tuesdays, but the time varies week to week.  Our last center is located in Clio at Clio Elementary/Middle School. It is opened on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 5:30PM-7:30PM.

 

What on the job literacy skills do you offer through your program?

We work with the county workforce development program, REWARD. We are a ACT Certified Work Ready Community. We train and administer students to take the Workkeys Assessment

and earn the National Career Readiness Certificate (NCRC™) to measure and close the skills gap. This program allows us the change to educate individuals and businesses on the value of an NCRC and community certification. There are many partners involved with this initiative such as Northeastern Technical College.

 

What is your affiliation with Marlboro County Adult and Community Education?

We are a partner of Marlboro County Adult and Community Education. They provide in-kind services to us such as office space, telephone, fax, copy, materials, and other day-to-day operational items and functions that we may need. It also allows us the opportunity to be hands on with the county workforce development program, REWARD.

 

Why is Marlboro Literacy Council going through this rebranding process with Metamorphosis?

Tamell Green is a native of Marlboro County and use to serve as the Director of the Magic Johnson Empowerment Center. She and I worked hand in hand with the county workforce development program of which she coordinated. She has also served as the board secretary for Marlboro Literacy Council. She has great knowledge of not only our organization, but I have worked with her and she also has million dollar ideas that I have witnessed first-hand to make an organization propel forward. Her expertise in social media and technology were a good fit for what we are trying to do with Marlboro Literacy Council.

 

What role will social media play with your organization?

We would like for social media to help raise awareness of our organization. We also want it to be easier to contact volunteers and to be contacted by our volunteers. We know that people are on their smartphones and social media all the time. Through our market research we found that 63% stated they would like to volunteer for an organization that utilized social media to keep in touch with its volunteers. 83% log in to social media at least once per day. The most used social media platform of those surveyed, was Facebook at 95%. This data helped us to choose which platform to begin with first in order to gain brand awareness.

 

Which social media platforms will be used for this extreme business makeover?

We will use Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Youtube, Linkedin, and Google +. They will be created in phases.

 

Which social media platform will you begin with?

We will begin with creating and building our Facebook community. From our primary research, it showed that 80% of adult users used Facebook. We are starting with this outlet first because of that reason. Another reason we are starting with that outlet is because of all the platforms, we feel that Facebook has the best community feel that is user friendly. Google + has a community feel, but it is not user friendly or well used within our target market.