WE LEARN (Women Expanding - Literacy Education Action Resource Network) promotes women's literacy as a tool for personal growth and social change through networking, education, action, and resource development.

Description:
WE LEARN (Women Expanding - Literacy Education Action Resource Network) promotes women's literacy as a tool for personal growth and social change through networking, education, action, and resource development. WE LEARN addresses the barriers, consequences, and impact of gender-based differences on women's literacy learning and how those differences affect women's success and their ability to progress socially, economically, and politically. A non-profit organization with a diverse membership of adult basic education learners and alumni, literacy teachers, authors, researchers and professional women, WE LEARN directly addresses the issues of adult women's literacy education as a transformative means to create systemic and social change benefiting all women. Through conferences, publications, research, special projects and a website of resources, WE LEARN works to increase awareness and support of women’s literacy issues as well as provide opportunities and resources for women literacy learners to engage with women-centered materials.

WE LEARN is the only national U.S. organization directly addressing the issues of adult women's literacy and the needs of women in adult basic/literacy education as a transformative means to create systemic and social change benefiting all women. WE LEARN strives to build awareness, cultivate allies, and advance the critical understanding of women's literacy and education as integral to social justice movements and community building.

History:
The formation of WE LEARN has slowly grown and progressed through several stages. The first stage began in 1996 as Women Leading Through Reading (WLTR), a collaboration between the Minnesota Literacy Council and Amazon Bookstore Cooperative, the feminist/lesbian bookstore in Minneapolis. WLTR developed book discussion groups for women in adult basic education programs. We learned what we already assumed: 1) Women who are new readers benefit from women-centered reading/literacy materials and learning circles; and 2) plain language women-centered materials are scarce, and difficult to find and access. This experience took us to a second stage, a modified participatory action research project involving collaboration with literacy workers, and conversation circles with women learners in literacy programs. That project more broadly discovered the need, use, and accessibility of women-centered literacy materials as integrally connected to a women's movement for social justice. Colleagues from the field of adult basic/literacy education and other social movements moved WE LEARN from concept to formal non-profit organization, incorporated in November 2003.

As a small non-profit organization run with 100% volunteer labor, WE LEARN has grown steadily. We continue to broaden our membership base especially in those communities most reflective of our constituencies, develop collaborations with a number of organizations, and maintain a content-rich and increasingly interactive website. Our significant accomplishments include three annual (net)working conferences on women and literacy; establishment of the Elizabeth Morrish Memorial Student Scholarship Fund to support student participation in WE LEARN activities/projects; collaboration with the New England Literacy Resource Center to publish a special issue of The Change Agent Issue #19 on women and literacy (funded by a grant from the Haymarket People's Fund); development and presentation of professional development workshops on women & literacy for ABE educators; initiation of the process to develop regional advisory boards; and development of the Women's Perspectives: ABE Student Writing Initiative (2005-2006 theme is Health and Well-Being).

Contact person: Mev Miller, Executive Director, 401-383-4374, (email)

Address:

182 Riverside Ave. Cranston, RI 02910 (See a map)

Directions:

We are NOT open to the public at this time.

Miscellaneous Information

Handicap accessible?
	No
Does your agency accept court-appointed volunteers?
	No