Editor:
We want the residents of Waterbury to know about the services offered by a long-standing, locally based, non-profit organization that provides education opportunities for you and your adult neighbors and friends. Central Vermont Adult Basic Education (CVABE) is the adult education and literacy provider working in and with members of your community.
Located in a lovely building at 141 South Main Street, is CVABE’s Waterbury Learning Center.
The Waterbury Learning Center welcomes any individual who needs reading, writing or math literacy education, a high school credential, English language instruction, and/or work and career readiness skill building for becoming more successful in work and in life. If you know any adults (anyone 16 and over) in your community, who want or need our services, please tell them about CVABE. Brian Kravitz, a Waterbury resident, and our local Teacher/Community Coordinator can be reached at our 141 South Main Street learning center or by calling the center at 244-8765. Brian works with a dedicated team of Waterbury volunteers to meet the adult literacy needs in the community.
CVABE has provided community-based education services in Waterbury since 1965. We offer personalized and individualized instruction to Waterbury residents and have served 313 community members over the past 12 years. Additionally, many other adults and teens from the surrounding towns come to the Waterbury Learning Center to receive services. CVABE provides direct services in all Washington, Orange, and Lamoille County towns. We hope you will visit our website, www.cvabe.org, to review our services and see where, in addition to the Waterbury Learning Center, our other five learning centers are located.
Everyone deserves to achieve basic education skills. 7% of area adults lack a high school credential. An additional 7% struggle to read, write, compute, and use technology above a 3rd grade level. There is a great deal of data linking low literacy to community issues such as poverty, unemployment, delinquency, and rising health care costs. Children of parents who lack literacy are twice as likely as their peers to grow up with low literacy.
Many of your fellow Waterbury residents are working hard, against many obstacles, to lift themselves up in life by gaining a basic education. Please spread the word about this free service to anyone you know who needs it. We truly hope to hear from you.
Jane Willard, CVABE Waterbury Volunteer
Carol Shults-Perkins, CVABE Executive Director
