Partnerships Abound in Hagerstown! Hagerstown Community College Family Literacy & The Washington County Family Center - Workforce Development and Adult Learning

Partnerships are what it is all about in Family Literacy and The Family Center in Hagerstown, Maryland is no different. Hagerstown Community College has a partnership with The Family Center to provide Title II Adult Education services to their clients. Students, both GED® and English language learners, receive parenting classes, classes on practical topics like budgeting, parent and child time, and even practice creating healthy meals for their children. Wrap around services at The Family Center allow parents to receive the academic skills they need while also developing as parents. While parents are in class, they are secure knowing their children are in good hands. Lunchtime provides a chance for a break, a time for parents and children to eat lunch together and even time allotted in the schedule for the parents to put their little ones down for an afternoon nap before returning to class for the afternoon.

During a visit to The Family Center on January 23, Ahu Moser and Betsy Ljubic from the Maryland Department of Labor’s Office of Adult Education and Literacy Services observed two Adult Education classes, an English language class and a GED® class. Students were grouped according to their ability level in the English class to allow for maximum participation and interaction for all students. Students watched a video and then discussed narrative elements, like setting and plot, from the story in the video. In the GED® class, students receive intensive daily instruction in all four content areas needed to prepare them for the GED tests (Reading Language Arts, Mathematics, Science and Social Studies). On the day of the visit, the morning lesson on math was used to transition into the afternoon lesson on Social Studies with a bar graph activity showing U.S. census data over the past hundred years. The teacher integrated test taking strategies into content instruction.

Staff at The Family Center are warm and welcoming, so it is no surprise Hagerstown Community College’s Adult Ed. students love coming to class there!