Printer Friendly Version - John Ferrara: A Legacy of Literacy

John Ferrara has made literacy his mission as leader of Literacy Volunteers Valley Shore. At the end of the month, he’ll retire as the group’s executive director, though his many other commuity commitments will likely keep him from getting bored.Photo courtesy of John Ferrara

He does so by staying involved in the community. John serves as a mentor for the Southeastern Connecticut chapter of SCORE, which provides advice to small businesses, and is involved with local and national political action committees.

However, the bulk of his time is spent as the executive director of the Literacy Volunteers Valley Shore (LVVS), an organization that he has been involved with since 1980. He became dedicated to the Literacy Volunteers while his wife, Paula, a former Westbrook first selectman, was working as LVVS secretary.

At the end of the month, John will retire from LVVS. He has come full circle in the organization.

“I started helping out first with some chores around the office and I worked on the book sale and a couple of fundraisers,” says John.

He drifted away for a bit, he said, but around seven or eight years ago a friend mentioned to John that the organization was looking for members to join the board. He joined the board, later becoming vice president and now executive director, a position he obtained permanently in 2012.

His commitment extends past the expectations of the position that is meant to be part-time. John said he spends between 40 and 45 hours each week working for the Literacy Volunteers.

In addition to overseeing tutoring programs, training workshops, overseeing office volunteers and other paid employees, assessing students reading levels, and helping to run events, John is in charge of outreach in different communities.

LVVS serves 11 towns in the shoreline area and John says that part of his job is “kind of being the face of the organization to not only the towns and some of the civic organizations, but the chambers and rotaries and the other civic organizations that are out there that we need to maintain contact with.”

Recently, LVVS partnered with the Shoreline Soup Kitchens & Pantries. John says that the volunteers go to meal sites and sit and talk to patrons about becoming students or becoming involved with LVVS.

In addition to the outreach, the organization has maintained a wide reach with volunteer networking and fundraisers that include the annual wine tasting and silent auction, the holiday social, a Scrabble tournament, and others.

According to its website www.vsliteracy.org, LVVS was founded in 1979 and officially recognized in 1980 to help increase and improve the literacy in the Valley-Shore area. At the time Vietnamese and Laotian refugee families had immigrated to the shoreline. The group started out as a branch of the Literacy Volunteers of Connecticut before becoming Literacy Volunteers Valley Shore in 1982. Since its founding, LVVS has helped more than 1,000 students from more than 65 different nations and has trained around 700 tutors.

Last year, LVVS tutored 258 students from 48 countries. The tutoring, John says, can take place anywhere—libraries, coffee shops, schools, and churches.

“It’s rather rewarding when you see someone that has come full circle, that has really worked at it, and one of the most amazing things to me and a benchmark of success is that the students that come to us are looking to achieve some very practical and down-to-earth goals like getting a drivers license, or getting their GED, or getting their citizenship, or getting a better job,” John says.

John says that he’s impressed by the students’ commitment and follow through. He says that their dedication speaks to their character.

A woman came in a few days after John became executive director with one of the regular customers of the Literacy Volunteers’ book sale.

“She was very nervous and shy and stood off in the corner while the lady who brought her in mentioned to me that she wanted to talk about being tutored,” says John.

“She began to cry and said that she couldn’t read and even though she had been through school, she still struggled. [She’d gotten] this job and she had been in the position for a number of years, but now they were asking her to sign a statement that said she had read and understood the personal policy manual,” says John. “Well, she couldn’t, she could barely read the front cover. And she was embarrassed and looking for help and I told her that’s what we did. We were able to get her help and get her a tutor and maybe nine months later she was able to sign and say she understood the manual.”

John says that there have been a number of interactions and experiences that have stood out to him as defining moments throughout his involvement with the Literacy Volunteers Valley Shore.

“It’s been a labor of love,” says John. “I have gotten a tremendous satisfaction knowing it makes a difference in our communities and knowing it impacts people’s lives.”