Program Offerings
As with other programs of Sacramento Food Bank & Family Services, all classes at the Community Learning Center are free of charge. In addition to providing help in basic reading skills, the SFBFS Community Learning Center now offers one-on-one tutoring in writing, mathematics, preparation for the High School Equivalency Exam (GED), basic computer skills, and job search skills. |
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Other services offered through CLC include English as a second language group class in collaboration with the Sacramento City Unified School District's Old Marshall Adult Education Center. The CLC's computer lab allows adult learners access to modern computer systems and the internet. Students can improve their typing speed and accuracy, learn office programs such as word processing and spreadsheets, as well as prepare resumes and complete school work.
Clients can look forward to a comfortable, welcome setting at the Community Learning Center. The CLC is committed to providing each adult learner with individual attention in a personalized, supportive, and non-judgmental environment.
Basic Math for Adults & Near-Adults
"Math Basics for Adults and Near-Adults" is written to help adults learn how to add and subtract accurately and quickly for use in shopping,, managing money, passing test for jobs and in higher education.
There are many reasons why adults did not master basic additions and subtraction skills. Undetected Learning Disability is the reason for many. They never got the specific help they needed. However, not only people with Learning Disability but, in general, people have different ways of looking at problems and need explanations presented in different ways.
This book provides a variety of explanations and is especially designed to help those adults "who never got it".
Math Basics for Adults – Addition and Subtraction (PDF)
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SFBFS Garden
A new project of SFBFS, the garden, was started in September 2006 to bring people together to grow healthy vegetables, learn about gardening in Oak Park, enjoy the fresh air, and create a community around good food and nature.
Work parties, along with scrumptious potluck lunches, are held several times a season. Workshops focusing on composting, nutrition, irrigation, sprouting seeds, and other garden interests are taught regularly.
The gardening participants are affiliated with various SFBFS programs but primarily the Havens Transitional Housing Program and the Oak Park Community Learning Center. Children are encouraged, as we want to instill in them the love of fresh, locally grown vegetables as a part of their life-long diets. Currently, we collaborate with the University of California, Davis for volunteers although members of the community are always welcome to help.
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Volunteers
Volunteers are the foundation of the Community Learning Center. Volunteers work one-on-one with each student which allows for the greatest amount of personal attention and flexibility. With staff support, volunteers share skills with students and provide a helping hand on the path to self-improvement. No previous teaching
experience is required of potential volunteers. Individualized training and ongoing assistance are provided. The only resources we ask volunteers to bring with them are patience, flexibility, and an open heart.
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Social Literacy
One of the qualities that makes the CLC so successful is our broad interpretation of 'literacy'. This includes developing confident social skills, having the self-esteem to set and achieve goals, and an understanding of the hard work and sacrifice that success requires. No matter what subject a student studies at
CLC, they all work on Social Literacy which helps them in all aspects of their lives .Whether it is a 20-year-old native born person learning multiplication for the first time or a 60-year-old person learning English and studying for Citizenship, they gain more confidence by accessing the unique educational opportunities the SFBS Community Learning Center has to offer.
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A CLC Client's Perspective on Education: "Why I Did Not Graduate"
When I was young, going to school was difficult. So many young people do not graduate because of their circumstances. I can't speak statistically, but I can speak of my own individual experience.
My difficulties started day one in kindergarten. I could remember wanting to learn my alphabet. Everything else was just a blur. I felt good inside because I was at school learning (so I thought). It was the teacher who noticed my behavior was different. I wasn't acting out. I just wasn't following along.
That's when the testing started that went on for two years. The second grade. The third grade. When they realized phonics didn't work, my test showed that I was dyslexic. Taking me from school to tutoring in the third grade had a different impact on me. Why was I different, angry, and so disappointed? By the time I was eight years old I had a complex that stayed with me for a lifetime, so it seemed.
This set off many years of frustration, denial, years of not caring. It didn't matter what anyone said or did that would make this feeling go away. The anger was so deep. The monster could not lift its weary head until many years later. By now you must have figured out that I did not graduate. I am 34 years old.
Many years later through counseling, training in martial arts and perseverance, I have learned to face my biggest fear: Learning. I survived the streets, drugs and the hell I put myself through because I could not accept what I was a person with learning difficulties.
Now my head is lifted. I like who I am and it's good to be different. It took many years to grow up. My grandmother always said I was a late bloomer.
Program Manager: CARRIE BLACK.
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