[NIFL-FOBASICS:1412] New Readers Conference

From: Barbara Garner (b.garner4@verizon.net)
Date: Wed Jun 15 2005 - 11:32:13 EDT


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From: "Barbara Garner" <b.garner4@verizon.net>
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Subject: [NIFL-FOBASICS:1412] New Readers Conference
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I thought this would be of interest to everyone...Barb Garner, Editor, Focus
on Basics:

The New Readers of Iowa will be having their sixteenth state conference on
Saturday, September 10, 2005, from 8:30AM to 4:00 PM in Des Moines, Iowa, at
the Four Seasons Hotel near the airport. Our last two conferences have been
focused on health literacy. This will be our 3rd health literacy conference.
There is no conference fee. Registration information for the conference will
appear later. We will be doing cholesterol screening and testing for body
mass. There will be a round table discussion about the Ask Me 3 project. We
will have a presentation about the new law that will go into effect in 2006
concerning how to access prescription drugs for people who have no drug
coverage. People can bring their prescriptions and talk with a pharmacist
about them. 
There will be a presentation about nutrition needs. At the noon luncheon
Rima Rudd from Harvard University School of Public Health will be our guest
speaker. We are hoping that Christie Vilsack, Iowa First Lady and literacy
advocate, will be able to be our opening speaker. <>

As a result of our past conferences, we as adult learners have learned how
to look at life and to take on its challenges. We have all grown together
and become stronger. We have raised the bar on how we live our lives. None
of us will become rocket scientists, but our lives have become more
productive and we keep growing each year. If education researchers were to
measure our reading growth it would be small in their eyes, but we have
grown as individuals more than one would think. 
Educators keep working on new ways to teach adults how to read. Maybe some
day there will be a magical way of teaching everyone how to read or maybe
someone will develop a pill that would help us to read. That would be great,
but I don't think these things will ever happen in my lifetime.

One of the things the New Readers of Iowa have been working on is how to
navigate the medical system. If we as new readers can improve the way we
access health care we have taken a big step to develop confidence. The
medical field has been working on health literacy and patient safety and how
they are related. Our experiences as adult learners can help bring
understanding to these problems. These conferences are about building
partnerships and finding ways to work together. Because the New Readers of
Iowa have worked with the Iowa Health System we now have a partnership with
them.<>

At the end of the day the adult learners will discuss what they learned from
last year's conference and what they learned at this conference. We will see
if we want to add to last year's health literacy statement or make another
one. This conference is the only place where people who are the most
vulnerable for poor health care come together and have the opportunity to
speak out. What we say and do at this conference is important for the rest
of society to know. I encourage others outside the state of Iowa to send
some of your adult learners to this conference. <>

This is an important conference. It should continue year after year. 
Last year's conference was attended by 150 from ten different states. We
hope this conference continues the process of learning and working together.
Anyone who is interested in health literacy is welcome to come to this
conference and to learn together with us.

Archie Willard
Conference Chair

--
Archie Willard
URL - http://www.readiowa.org/archiew.html


Barbara Garner
b.garner4@verizon.net
phone: (781) 784-4489
 



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