8th Street Mission, Literacy Council to partner on GED Program

8th Street Mission, Literacy Council to partner on GED Program

Free classes offer chance at better education

news@theeveningtimes.com

It is not unusual for the 8th Street Mission for Jesus Christ to reach out. One of the first thoughts that may come to mind about the mission is outreach. Pastor Larry Brown recently reached out to Thomas Schlauch, Coordinator for the Crittenden County Literacy Council, to re-establish an old relationship. The request resulted on the two groups linking up to make GED classes available at the mission located on the 700 block of E. Broadway.

Mary Knoeferl will volunteer as the liaison between the Literacy Council, located at ASU-Mid South on West Broadway, and the mission to offer classes at the mission on East Broadway again. “We had as many as 17 students here at a time when we did this before,” said Mary.

The classes are slated from 10 a.m. until noon, Monday through Thursday, with the option to stick around for a free lunch at the mission.

Everything is set to launch immediately. Schlauch indicated sign-up, orientation, and evaluation were all that was needed to get a student started. The Test for Adult Basic Education (TABE) helps a student decide at what level to enroll.

The three R’s form the basic offerings, reading, language arts and arithmetic, also known as literature, composition and math. Students may choose between level one and two to start the course toward a GED.

“We have a list of classes and a sign-up sheet for each one,” said Schlauch.

“When enough students, three or four, have signed up we will start a class. I encourage all the prospective students to come by and take a look at what is available.”

“The reason we are doing this at the 8th Street Mission is because they did here a while ago,” continued Schlauch. “There are a lot of people that are not fond of using the bus, and they come to the mission naturally for other resources. There are people that have thought about doing it, but never make it down to the college. Now we can expand to reach a different group of GED students.”

“There may be people that are of 50 or 60 years of age that just may be very intimidated to go to ASUMid South,” said Brown.

“So this is a lot more home based. Some are already coming here to eat.”

By John Rech