February | VOLUNTEER NEWSLETTER | 2026

Today is World Social Justice Day, a reminder that access to education, economic opportunity, and civic participation are building blocks of a fair society and core to Literacy Source’s mission. We are grateful to our volunteers, who advance social justice every day by sharing their time and skills to expand access to learning, opportunity, and belonging.

This year, Literacy Source celebrates 40 years of community-powered adult education. When we first began in 1986, we were an entirely volunteer-run organization. There were no paid instructors or administrative staff, just dedicated community members who believed that adults deserved access to reading, writing, and math education. Volunteers created lesson plans, met one-on-one with students, coordinated schedules, and built the foundation of the organization we know today. From the very beginning, volunteers have been at the heart of Literacy Source.

Over four decades, we have grown in reach and impact, but that core truth has not changed. Volunteers continue to provide the steady, relationship-centered support that makes our programs possible. As we reflect on our history, we thought it would be fun to test our collective knowledge:

How Well Do You Know Literacy Source? (Answers below!)

1. What was our original name when we first opened in 1986?
2. How many students were served in our programs last year?
3. What Seattle library branch was our first partner?
4. How many different languages did our students speak last year?
5. What year did we become an official 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization?

As we celebrate this milestone year, we also invite you to join us at our annual fundraising luncheon on April 24 at the Mountaineers Club, our largest fundraising event of the year and a joyful celebration of our learners, volunteers, and community. We hope you will attend, and help spread the word to friends, family, and colleagues who believe in the power of adult education. Literacy Source began with volunteers, and it continues because of volunteers.

In community,

Liz Wurster

Communications Coordinator

Answers:

1. The Literacy Action Center, founded at St. John Lutheran Church to provide free tutoring in adult foundational skills, reading, writing, and math. 2. 1,016 students 3. Greenwood Branch 4. 75 languages 5. 2001

This year marks the 100th anniversary of Black History Month commemorations, begun in 1926 by Carter G. Woodson to ensure that Black history would be preserved, taught, and taken seriously. That effort was necessary because, for generations, Black contributions and experiences were excluded from textbooks and classrooms, while Black students were subjected to unequal and segregated schooling. Here in Seattle, families organized the 1966 school boycott and created “freedom schools” to protest racial imbalance and the failure to teach Black history. A decade later, desegregation busing plans often placed the burden of integration on Black students traveling from the Central District and South End to predominantly white North End schools. Layered on top of this history is redlining, a federal housing policy that restricted where Black families could buy homes, shaping school boundaries, wealth accumulation, and educational opportunity for decades; Seattle’s interactive redlining map shows how those patterns were drawn into our neighborhoods.

When we see persistent differences in graduation rates or test scores, those outcomes reflect decades of unequal access to housing, school funding, advanced coursework, and culturally responsive curriculum. In today’s political climate, as federal actions seek to roll back Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives or limit how race and history are discussed in schools, honest education requires courage. We are grateful for our volunteer tutors who model that courage, who push back against narratives that marginalize disenfranchised communities, and who create space for thoughtful, respectful dialogue even when topics feel complex.

Black History Month is also a celebration of extraordinary resilience, creativity, scholarship, and leadership in the face of systemic barriers. From the founding of Historically Black Colleges and Universities, created when Black students were barred from many institutions, to generations of educators, organizers, artists, and entrepreneurs who built opportunity where none existed, Black communities have continually shaped and strengthened this country.

At Literacy Source, our commitment to equity, inclusion, integrity, and lifelong learning means engaging that full story, both the injustice and the achievement, while serving a richly diverse community of adult learners, including immigrants and refugees from around the world. Many of our students know what it means to navigate systems that were not built with them in mind. When we teach this history honestly, we help learners better understand the systems they are stepping into and see education as a pathway to participation and opportunity.

Sentence Frames

Sentence frames are ready-made chucks of language that allow students to more easily create complete well-formed sentences. Sentence frames can be used to scaffold both speaking and writing activities.They are most commonly used with language learners, however they can also be useful with ABE learners.

Instead of telling students what needs to be completed in a sentence, you show them...

You can read the full teaching tip here.

By Allie Azersky, Center Programs Manager

Tutors!

Do you have a few minutes?

We'd like to hear from you what topics you would like to see covered in our next tutor workshops. Do you need support with teaching skills, adapting class materials, mitigating barriers, or working with students on their personal goals? We want to help!

Please take a moment to complete this survey and let us know! 

Roundtable Discussion 

Tuesday, February 24th, 4:30 – 5:45pm, ONLINE

Everyone is welcome to come and participate in the discussion.    

We are excited to have our popular Volunteer Roundtable Discussion coming up next week! A reminder that the topic will be covering strategies for error correction and reducing teacher talk.

This is a two-part training/discussion with the first part being an independent online course followed by the Roundtable Discussion with two of our conversation class instructors, Megan and Laura. Join them to talk about what you learned in the course and how you can apply it when working with students.  

Please join the Google Classroom to get the nuts and bolts for the training (including the Zoom Link) and complete the Part 1 activity before the discussion. 

Congratulations and thank you to these volunteers who have achieved a year of service! We are so appreciative of all your hard work and dedication to Literacy Source.

• Heather Davis (Conversation Class)

Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain

Staff: Laura Kalmanson

Tristan Strong Destroys the World

Staff: Cory Ihrig Goldhaber

The Catch

Staff: Megan Dalton

The Parable of the Sower

Staff: Britt McCombs

The Book of Night Women

Staff: Katherine VanHenley

Let the Trumpet Sound

Staff: Gabrielle Windsor

Young Dragon: A Bruce Lee Story

Various Dates in February and March (Seattle Children's Museum, 201 Thomas St, Seattle, WA 98109, $43)

Before he was a legend, Bruce Lee was just a young man trying to figure it all out—right here in Seattle. This action-packed, soul-searching story follows the Young Dragon as he navigates a new country and finds his voice. Through movement, magic, and heart, we meet the human behind the icon—flawed, fierce, and full of possibility. Watch as Lee learns to clear his brain by mimicking the white noise of water and begins fusing martial arts with philosophy. From street fights in Hong Kong to teaching self-defense and chasing big dreams, Bruce’s journey reminds us that finding your way means first figuring out who you are. Come see how Seattle shaped him into a flexible, fluid, and flowing master—and how he reshaped the world.

Dorothy Roberts: The Mixed Marriage Project: A Memoir of Love, Race, and Family

Thursday February 26th, 2026 @ 7:00PM - 8:00 PM (Elliot Bay Book Company, FREE)

Dorothy Roberts is a groundbreaking scholar, social justice advocate, and award-winning author whose work has transformed how we think about race, family, science, and the law. A distinguished professor of Africana studies, law, and sociology at the University of Pennsylvania and a MacArthur “Genius” Fellow, she is widely known for her influential books, including Killing the Black Body, Shattered Bonds, Fatal Invention, and Torn Apart. Her pathbreaking work bridges rigorous research and urgent public engagement, and she has been featured in The New York Times, NPR, MSNBC, CBS Sunday Morning, and other major media outlets. Her TED Talk has been viewed more than 1.6 million times. Recent recognitions of her leadership include elections to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society and the National Academy of Medicine; honorary doctorate degrees from Rutgers University and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland; TIME Magazine’s 2025 The Closers list; 2025 STATUS list of leaders in life sciences; Society of Family Planning Lifetime Achievement Award; Juvenile Law Center Leadership Prize; and American Psychiatric Association Solomon Carter Fuller Award. In her forthcoming memoir, The Mixed Marriage Project, Roberts turns to her own story, tracing how her identity as a Black girl with a white father and her intellectual passions were shaped by her parents’ pioneering research on interracial marriage. With clarity, courage, and a deeply personal lens, she asks what it means to love across racial divides and invites readers into the experiences that forged her voice as an acclaimed champion for justice.

Lunar New Year Celebration

March 7, 11am-5pm, (Seattle's Chinatown-ID, FREE)

The Lunar New Year Celebration highlights each zodiac animal and celebrates the year's symbolism in the historic Chinatown-International District (Chinatown-ID). Since its inception in 1998, our Lunar New Year Celebration has become one of the largest events of its kind in the region, showcasing the diversity, richness, and cultural heritage of the Asian American community.

The celebration features traditional dragon and lion dances, martial arts demonstrations, and other cultural performances. Visitors can also participate in our Annual Food Walk, sampling dishes from local businesses. With a variety of family-friendly activities, arts and crafts vendors, and cultural exhibits, the event offers something for everyone to enjoy!

Our next New Volunteer Orientation (via Zoom) will be on March 4 at either 1pm or 7pm. 

Potential volunteers are invited to register online here. 

Miss any of our past volunteer newsletters? You can access archived newsletters at the bottom of the Volunteer Page of our webpage.