Guam Loves to Read announces book distribution

The Guam Community College Literacy Navigators program held its inaugural Guam Loves to Read book distribution event on Friday, April 26, 2024, in the GCC Learning Resource Center on its Mangilao campus. Through the distribution, more than 7,000 resiliency memoirs and literature from local authors will be provided to the Department of Youth Affairs’ Youth Resource Center, Guam Public Libraries, village youth centers, and the Guam Department of Education public school libraries, as part of the Literacy Navigators efforts to promote literacy among Guam youth.

In an effort to combat low reading and comprehension rates among Guam’s youth, Guam Community College teamed up with Souder, Betances & Associates Inc. to establish the Guam Loves to Read program to support literacy. Prior to the start of the program, GCC partnered with Souder, Betances & Associates Inc., in an effort to continually educate and train GCC faculty, staff, and administrators on the importance of literacy, communication, and decision making. These “transformation” sessions were encouragement enough to seek funding to create the Guam Loves to Read program.

During the Fall semester of 2022, Souder, Betances & Associates Inc. held two Bootcamps, each running over the course of three weeks, to train GCC students as Literacy Navigators to tutor and guide elementary students reading literacy at Maria Ulloa, Juan M. Guerrero, Wettengel and PC Lujan Elementary Schools.

The Literacy Navigators initiative launched in the Fall semester of 2022. Promoting literacy is more than a catchphrase for the 15 young men and women who make up the Literacy Navigators program on Guam. In fact, these promising leaders have been making an impact in the lives of young students in the four of Guam’s public elementary schools and the Guam public libraries. During Christmas and spring break, the Navigators held literacy events, and at the end of summer of 2023, the Navigators hosted reading events at the Guam Public Libraries.

In the aftermath of Typhoon Mawar, the plan to continue the tutoring at the elementary schools for the summer sessions had to be altered. A memorandum of understanding was created with the Guam Public Library System and the Navigators made a seamless transition to three branches of the Guam Public Library System: Barrigada, Yona, and Dededo.

More recently, the Navigators are currently implementing the objectives of an MOU with the Guam Department of Youth Affairs. Navigators provide services to the three community centers: Southern (Haya), Central (Kattan), and Northern (Lagu) Resource Centers.

The dire need for the Literacy Navigators program was articulated by Gabriella Leon Guerrero, who recounted her experience tutoring a 3rd grade boy. At that time his classmates were working on writing short stories, but the boy was unable to identify or read the letters of the alphabet because he did not have any resources during the pandemic. Gabriella worked with him one-on-one and by the end of the semester he was able to string letters together to make words.

Leon Guerrero’s experience highlights the challenge of socially promoting students from one grade to the next, without the requisite skills to learn proficiently. Students promoted, without the basic knowledge needed to advance, only falls further behind with each successive year. The Literary Navigators program provides resources to help these students reach the required proficiency to advance.

The Literacy Navigators joined Gov. Lourdes A. Leon Guerrero, GCC president Dr. Mary Okada, DYA Youth Development administrator Corrine Buendicho, and Guam Public Library System director Kris Seerengan at the GCC Learning Resource Center, to showcase the 7,125 books to be distributed. The program and the books are funded by the Literacy Navigators grant provided through the Governor’s Education Assistance and Youth Empowerment Grant Program. (PR)