3-5-2021
For Immediate Release:
RVALA Expands its Tech Lending Library!
The River Valley Adult Learning Alliance is proud to announce a new donation to their technology lending library! After hearing about the program through the Pope County Community Foundation, Carol and Bryce Mobley decided to donate personally to the organization. Their support will allow the Alliance to purchase additionalchromebooks for adult learners in the area. This will ensure that area students and potential students can find access to both hot spots and home chromebooks!
“Community support such as this will allow us to match these new chromebooks with the new hot spots we raised money for recently,” said director Martin-Moats. “So far this year we have been able to receive 1,000.00 in grant funding and 1,600.00 in private donations. This shows that our community deeply understands the need for more technology resources and is willing to support it with their donations.
When our community supports adult learners we aren’t just helping individual adults get the GED or land a better job. We’re helping whole families, and, in turn, communities. People want to change their lives. They just need access to tools to make it happen. We are so grateful for any and all community donations, as these donations change people’s lives.
About the RVALA:
The River Valley Adult Learning Alliance provides free, quality instruction and support to education seeking adults and their families across five counties: Franklin, Johnson, Logan, Pope and Yell. We believe in building strong partnerships within our communities, tackling root causes of poverty, and helping adults and families meet their self-appointed learning goals.
We offer one-one-one tutoring and small group classes for English as a Second Language, GED test support, technology resources to help with remote learning/working, job application support, and family literacy programming to assist parents and caregivers in supporting their child’s academic success. We accomplish this work via community partnerships, stipend Americorps members from the Arkansas Reads! program, and volunteer tutors.
About the Program:
In June of last year, RVALA received a Covid relief grant from the Arkansas Community Foundation and used it to purchase hotspots for area students, thus allowing rural students to access digital learning. This experimental project was highly successful and led to the creation of a lending library for adult learners. So far RVALA has only been able to meet the needs of 5-10 students. But the goal of the library isn’t just to meet the immediate need. Rather, it is to help change individual lives while also shifting the state and county narrative around internet and access and tech resources. This covid crisis has made it clear that internet access should be a public resource. Lack of access and resources means an increasing education and wealth gap in our region. Within our organization, 95% of our students live at or below the poverty line. Adults without broadband struggle, creating further educational and economic divides in rural America. Access to equitable education, and basic tools like home chromebooks, can change this.
Welcome to the River Valley Adult Learning Alliance! 