Special Event at Boswell Book Company

Once again, Boswell Book Company is hosting a book reading to benefit Literacy Services!

On Tuesday, August 23, 7:00 pm, author Michael Bowen will read excerpts of his latest novel, DAMAGE CONTROL. Royalties from purchases of the new novel will go to support a spectrum of programs at Literacy Services of Wisconsin. 

Once in a Generation Chance
By: Ginger Duiven, Executive Director

I am guessing that you’ve heard something about the building boom that is happening in Milwaukee. Currently, there are $7.2 billion dollars in construction projects planned or underway. Already employers are desperate for qualified workers and in our city there are thousands of adults on the employment sidelines. We have an imperative and the once-in-a-generation chance to fix this classic mismatch of supply and demand. There are opportunities being offered and there are opportunities needed, and we have plan for a new High School Equivalency Diploma program that will help connect people to these possibilities.

Thanks to an amazing $100,000 grant from a new philanthropy collaborative called Impact100 Greater Milwaukee, our work to create a timely, new competency-based high school equivalent diploma program can move forward. If you’re not familiar, competency-based learning is an approach where:

We're Busy Changing the World
By: Ginger Duiven, Executive Director

Wow, it’s been a while since we could make the time to put together a newsletter. I know it is important to stay in touch with all of you. Since I last wrote, we have done so much! This “mini” Syllabus is a quick read to catch you up on some of the big news here at LSW. We plan to put together the next full size Syllabus newsletter in early summer.

Some of you may remember when I wrote you last year about the $100,000 endowment fund challenge grant from the Rita Stevens family. They challenged us to raise $100,000 to earn another $100,000 in matching funds to celebrate our 50th Anniversary. Well guess what? WE DID IT! As the deadline approached in late December, we received the last $15,000 we needed to succeed! Thank you to all of the 53 donors who contributed to the first addition to our endowment fund in a dozen years or more. LSW is in a stronger position as we start our next 50 years.

So what else have we been up to?