Tech grant awarded locally for adult ed, literacy

A $32,000 grant for the Adult Education and Literacy (AEL) program housed at the Cape Girardeau Career and Technology Center, 1080 S. Silver Springs Road, has been announced by the Missouri College Access Network.

The money, according to MCAN, will be used to provide hot spots, laptops and other equipment for AEL classrooms “to provide program participation flexibility with virtual learning opportunities,” according to a release from the Columbia, Missouri-based organization.

“This grant was designed to help those in low income, rural, predominately African American and English as a second language learners in three different locations in Southeast Missouri to ensure access to digital literacy,” AEL Cape Girardeau coordinator Pamela Riehn said.

“This includes approximately 50 students combined (but) is approximately 16% of our total program,” she added, noting during the pandemic, the impacted students had no access to virtual education.

“With the help of this grant, our adult education classes in these areas will not be left behind,” Riehn said.

According to MCAN, the grant will have a “direct focus” in Bollinger, Cape Girardeau, Dunklin and New Madrid counties.

All four counties are within the top 34% of Missouri counties with the lowest proportion of associate degrees, according to the release.

“Three (of the) counties are in the top 24% of counties with the lowest bachelor’s degree attainment and three of the counties include some of the largest populations of color in the state — 11% for African American/Black students and 62% for Hispanic/Latinx students,” the release stated.