Assessing Gaps
In our earlier post, we mentioned three key steps that organizations can take to address literacy gaps among their participants–including assessing gaps, building connections, and deploying resources. The first step, assessing gaps, is crucial for organizations to effectively address the needs of individuals at any literacy level. Put simply, to give individuals the best support possible, organizations need to know where that support is specifically needed.
Literacy gaps can show up in many areas of life, from digital literacy to healthcare to career navigation and beyond. At scaleLIT, we’re focusing on each of these three areas, and providing insight on assessing gaps to help organizations provide their participants with the best resources possible.
From online communication to navigating telehealth to applying to an online job portal, digital skills are crucial for performing daily tasks. Yet for people without these skills, acquiring the resources and support they need is a challenge.
With evolving technology, we know that literacy gaps continue to widen. At the same time, assessing and addressing these gaps becomes more important in every aspect of life. One example of this is the expansion of housing assistance across Illinois during the pandemic. During this expansion process, almost all of the housing assistance applications and communications were done online. Suddenly, many people who needed help the most were facing the barrier of navigating these online spaces. When social service organizations started helping people more and more often who were challenged by the digital processes, there was a need for digital literacy resources. Whether individuals face difficulty in checking their email, using their email, or using a phone—the process for helping them becomes more complicated. The more that social services organizations can incorporate literacy, especially in digital literacy, they’ll have better results for whatever assistance they are seeking to provide.
It’s also important to realize that “literacy” doesn’t only apply to knowing a skill, such as checking email, but it also applies to using that skill effectively. In 2019, an international study assessed adults in industrial nations in “technology rich problem solving” skills. Essentially, the researchers were testing how well adults could solve problems using technology. What they found was that in the United States, even though technology is ubiquitous, there are wide gaps in this skill across age groups. The common narrative in digital literacy is that gaps are only faced by older people. In reality, effectively navigating digital space is a challenge across demographics.
It’s hard to imagine how much more efficiently organizations serving any population could operate if they were able to assess and address these digital literacy gaps from the beginning. While we wait for technology to become more accessible, we still need to provide immediate services today for those who need them. So, what could it look like for organizations to assess and address this gap? We have a few ideas!
One way literacy organizations can assess gaps in digital literacy is through learning platforms like Northstar Digital Literacy. We’ve used this platform with adult literacy organizations for nearly seven years to identify the needs of their participants, with exciting results. Northstar allows users to take assessments, take learning modules, and even earn skills and certificates they can add to their resume. At scaleLIT, we added over thirty new community organizations to the Northstar platform during the pandemic, to help these community organizations assess individuals’ needs. It was also the first time we’ve used this platform with organizations who focus on areas beyond adult literacy, and we believe this growth is a result of Northstar’s accurate and effective assessment model.
Another approach is evaluating what technology individuals actually have access to, as well as how and when they may be able to use it. For example, during Covid, it became critical for households without broadband access to get connected to the internet, and we’ve seen this access expand thanks to both government initiatives and literacy organizations. Organizations that haven’t traditionally focused on digital literacy or adult education have begun addressing the gaps in access to online tools and skills. Implementing effective assessments pinpoint specific digital literacy gaps, so that these organizations can work on closing those gaps to better help the people they serve.
CAREER LITERACY & CAREER NAVIGATORS
In career literacy, gaps may be less obvious on the surface, but accurately assessing these gaps is necessary in helping individuals achieve their goals. One of the ways scaleLIT and other organizations help navigate these gaps is through the career navigator model. Career navigators are literacy practitioners who help participants transition into career pathways, GED and ESL classes, training programs, and other essential programs. They are not case managers, rather, navigators serve as connectors to get learners and job-seekers in touch with the people and tools that can help them take the next steps in their careers.
Career navigators also serve as bridges between multiple types of literacy. For example, they ask participants: What help do you need with digital tools? Do you have a high school diploma? Do you have an ID? How can we best secure these things for you? Career navigators make essential referrals and connect the dots for those who need them.
Finally, career navigators also deliver information to the organizations they work with as well. With their connections, they can help connect organizations to other literacy services, across the areas of digital, career, and health literacy. For any organization, working with well-connected navigators helps make individuals’ gaps and the solutions to close those gaps more evident.
Even if a full navigator model isn’t immediately possible for an organization to implement, organizations can pull from this approach to assess the needs of participants. First, they can connect with social service practitioners who have knowledge of career and literacy barriers, consulting with them to establish some best practices for meeting individuals where they are. Second, they can also replicate the essential step of building trust with the people they serve. Especially with the level of personal information, documentation, and life history involved in seeking education and careers, participants must be able to trust organizations to help them without invasive pressure or misuse of their personal information. When best practices and trust are established, these connections can work together to bring literacy gaps to light more clearly.
At scaleLIT, our third focus area is health literacy. In this area, it is critical for organizations to develop a culturally humble curriculum to use in serving a wide range of health literacy needs. Because each program and their population is unique, these curricula should reflect and resonate with the populations using them.
Across literacy organizations, there are many innovative, culturally rich ways to teach health literacy. In this area especially, authentically connecting to communities and other organizations is a major step in getting people what they need. Like career literacy, health literacy can be incredibly personal, which causes a potential disconnect between individuals and their ability to attain resources. In health literacy–perhaps more than any other area–accurate assessment only comes with trust.
Finally, whenever possible, connecting with medical professionals on-site, especially through Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) can ensure that there are a range of people who are able to ask the right questions to assess and address health literacy. If organizations successfully develop trust with their communities, they can serve as another bridge to trust in medical institutions that may have been historically inaccessible.
CONCLUSION
An informed, resource-backed approach led with trust and transparency opens the door for organizations to serve their participants’ unique needs. Often, organizations can take their populations' needs for granted without knowing the specific gaps individuals may face, gaps that can vary significantly for each person. Taking the time to accurately assess gaps ensures that organizations can more effectively carry out their mission and get their participants the best possible help to achieve their goals.
In our next post in the series, we’ll cover the second step in our approach to scaling organizations’ missions through literacy: building connections. Stay tuned!
