The Gathering Place provides literacy programs to the Navajo People in and around the area of Thoreau, New Mexico.
The staff for literacy is comprised of individuals who reside in different communities and bring many talents to the program.
They share the language and culture of their clients and thereby bring compassion and insight to the learning experience.
- "Keepers of the Beautyway" is a program offered to Navajo-speaking elders to help them learn enough English to function in today's society. The name of the program comes from the recognition that it is the elders who keep the wonder and beauty of the Navajo culture alive and who are the living examples for further generations.
- ESL (English as a Second Language) techniques are central to our literacy programs, and our staff are bilingual.
- G.E.D. (Graduate Equivalency Diplomas) classes are provided through funds from Even Start (family literacy), New Mexico Commission on Higher Education (Adult education), and New Mexico Coalition for Literacy (Adult education). All classes are held at the Family Learning Center.
- "Family Learning Center"; Family literacy programs offered at the Family Learning Center help parents of young children realize their role as the primary teacher in their children's lives. The program works to increase the reading skills and education of participating parents, teach parenting skills that foster children's learning, increase the amount of time parents and children read together, and advance the development skills and school readiness of young children. The goal of this program is to end the intergenerational cycle of under-education and poverty prevalent in our service area.
- Our staff visit and take referrals from WIC clinics, pre-schools, battered women's shelters and tribal Navajo Chapter Houses.
- We conduct a "Reading and Child Development Center" in a generously donated vacant store in the local shopping mall in Gallup, New Mexico for four-month periods.
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