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Stars are aligned to help end literacy gap

By Marie P. Grady, Correspondent

Sometimes the stars are just aligned.

Ask Sheriff Michael J. Ashe Jr. In a political career that has spanned decades of change, he knows something about the pulse of a community. He also knows something about what a community needs to grow and prosper.

Literacy. Opportunity. Vision.

Ashe was among members of the Hampden County Literacy Cabinet who gathered in downtown Springfield recently to learn more about a workforce development plan for the state's third largest city. The faces in the room were themselves a constellation of leaders from the business, education, political and social service communities.

The Literacy Cabinet was formed last May to help move forward a public agenda that puts education and literacy on the front burner. The simple fact of the matter is that without a literate workforce, there won't be workforce development.

Those gathered in the room have seen the effects of a literacy gap first hand. They included Maura McCaffrey, vice president of Health New England, one of the region's largest employers; Jack Henry, vice president of Big Y; and Robert Schwarz, vice president of Peter Pan Bus Lines.

All spoke of the challenges of finding qualified people for key positions in a city where nearly half of high school students fail to graduate and the number of residents with bachelor's degrees, at 20 percent, is far below the state average of 33 percent.

Thomas Moriarty, Hampden County Register of Probate, has witnessed the results of poverty and illiteracy at probate court. The newest Cabinet member, Moriarty, has seen the outcome: fractured families living in poverty in a county which leads the state for children not being raised by their own parents.

The gathering also included leaders from the education community, including Holyoke Community College President William F. Messner, Springfield Technical Community College dean Arlene Rodriguez and Aimee Griffin Munnings, director of the Law and Business Center for Advancing Entrepreneurship at Western New England College.

Agma Sweeney, another Cabinet member, is a district aide for Congressman John W. Olver who has long advocated for education through the Westfield Association of Spanish Americans. Leaders of the region's top non-profits were also represented, including Carla Oleska, director of the Women's Fund of Western Massachusetts and Mary Anne Herron, director of the Harold Grinspoon Charitable Foundation.

On this day, the room included not only long-time political luminaries such as Ashe but others who will help to shape the city in a new era of challenges. Within weeks of the meeting, Denise R. Jordan, president of 5A, the Academics, Athletics, Arts Achievement Association, was named new chief of staff for newly elected Mayor Domenic Sarno.

The gathering also included Rus Peotter, general manager of WGBY.

The group heard some sobering statistics about the city's needs from J. William Ward, director of the Regional Employment Board and Larry Martin, planning and employer services manager for the agency. In essence, their message was that a comprehensive, top-down commitment to providing a literate workforce is key to the city's future.

Smart people began to realize that some time ago. That is why, although they are among the busiest people on the planet, it wasn't hard to enlist the Cabinet, which also includes the publisher of the The Republican, the region's largest daily newspaper; the president of Chicopee Savings Bank; two top educators from the city's public school system; the city's public library director; the president of the Greater Springfield Urban League and leaders from the Irene E. and George A. Davis Foundation and the National Conference on Community and Justice.

Ashe, who was accompanied by Andree Duval, director of educational programs for the Hampden County Correctional Center, has some experience in the arena of addressing social ills. The jail has helped some 3,700 ex-offenders to get their graduate equivalency diplomas and Ashe, along with Schwarz, has taken a leadership role in helping to end homelessness in the city.

In what perhaps was a sign of his commitment to the cause, Ashe managed to make this meeting even though he was being honored the same evening at Elms College for his community service. Maybe that's because he knows the critical importance of this mission.

For too long, the sheriff said, "we have had our heads in the sand."

But Ashe, an optimist whose vision has never been limited to the political universe, put his proverbial finger to the wind and saw hope for one of the greatest challenges of our times.

"At times, the stars can be lined up appropriately, and I really think they are now."

Marie P. Grady is director of the Literacy Works Project for the Regional Employment Board of Hampden County. She can be reached at mgrady@rebhc.org or at 755-1367.