Juntos
Holyoke's Adult Basic Education Collaborative
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about usAbout Us:  
" Juntos" is Spanish for "together", and to collaborate is to work together for a common goal. The Juntos Collaborative is a group of adult education programs that share the goal of helping adults in Holyoke to get a free, high-quality education. The partners offer coordinated, comprehensive course sequences in Bilingual/Native Language Literacy, English ABE/ASE, and ESOL, along with counseling/referral services including college and vocational transition, to adult learners in Holyoke. We have been sharing an Adult Basic Education grant from the Massachusetts Department of Education since 1995.

The Juntos programs cooperate instead of competing with each other. Teachers from the different programs work together to improve our lesson plans and teaching skills. The program coordinators meet once a month to talk about how to make our programs as strong as we can. We share a common Advisory Board that helps us think about the best way to meet the needs of the adults who study with us and helps us work on long-term planning for adult education in Holyoke. Finally, every year we hold a large event called "Juntos Learner/Teacher Day" in which we bring together participants and staff from all of our programs to get to know each other and think together about a common theme.

The Holyoke Public Schools serves as the lead agency for Juntos. The partners are the
HALO Center, the Care Center, the Community Education Project (CEP), Holyoke Community College ABE to College Tutor/Mentor Program, Massachusetts Career Development Institute/Holyoke (MCDI), and the New England Farmworkers' Council (NFWC).

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Direct services currently provided:
  • (Spanish) Native Language Literacy-beginning reading through pre/GED
  • English for Speakers of Other Languages: Beginning-Advanced and English for Employment
  • Adult Basic Education in English-Beginning Literacy through GED
  • Adult college transition support programming
  • ABE/ESOL components of family literacy programs
  • Educational counseling/student support
  • Basic computer technology instruction
  • ABE staff outstationing at Career Point (one-stop center) for initial intake, assessment, and referral of potential ABE students identified by career center staff

Service schedules are coordinated to provide as broad a range as possible of services in several accessible locations during mornings, late afternoon, and evening.

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Honors and Awards: Juntos was selected as one of the 12 "model community partnerships for adult literacy" by Federal DOE/OVAE in 2003 (feature forthcoming at www.c-pal.net), 2002 "Literary Partnership" award from Regional Employment Board of Hampden County.

Contact: Paul Hyry, Holyoke Public Schools Director of Adult/Parent Education, HALO at McHugh Educational Center located at 57 Suffolk Street, Holyoke, MA 01040.

contactOr call (413) 534-2026        emailOr email   phyry@hps.holyoke.ma.us

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Last Updated May 27, 2004