“The Illinois Adult & Continuing Educators Association (IACEA) provides leadership, representation and advocacy for adult education and literacy practitioners in order to advance, unify and professionalize the field.”

The purpose of this letter is to wish you well and to let you know how your Association has been trying to represent you to the best of our abilities. In late July, the Board set aside two days for a special meeting where we reviewed and revised our mission, took a look at our core values and developed goals and action steps along with volunteers to insure those steps happen. We have an ambitious job ahead of us but you have elected excellent people who are up to the task. A summary of the established goals and actions are as follows:

These goals represent our future initiatives. Each Board meeting there will be time set aside to see what we have accomplished toward our goals. After each Board meeting, we will communicate with you regarding this progress. However, we feel that it’s important for you to know some of our current and past successes. Some of our accomplishments are as follows:

 

1. IACEA provides legislative advocacy by working with the Legislature and collaborating agencies in seeking additional funding for all Adult Education programs. This has led to increases in funding levels for Adult Education providers in Illinois.
2. IACEA implemented an Awareness Day at the Capitol, which brought students, teachers, and administrators to Springfield to talk to their legislators, tour the Capitol, and learn more about the legislative process.
3. IACEA provides a link to national activities and organizations, such as sponsoring the COABE conference in Chicago in 2000.
4. IACEA provides staff development for adult education through the annual conference.
5. IACEA promotes professionalism through such activities as the working group on credentialing adult educators and the resulting white paper and focus groups to develop a framework for credentialing.
6. IACEA provides networking opportunities for all adult educators to get together and gather new ideas from each other that benefit both the educators and the students.
7. IACEA serves a leadership function for the field by representing adult education on statewide committees with regulatory agencies.
8. IACEA provides leadership in research through such activities as the Task Force report detailing the issues and concerns of stakeholders and the general public throughout the state.
9. IACEA provides communication of issues through information sent out by fax, newsletter, and e-mail to update the field on current topics of importance.
10. IACEA is a catalyst for change by being proactive and maintaining knowledge of issues as they arise and taking field input forward.
11. IACEA implemented a website: www.iacea.net
12. IACEA implemented a member listserve to be used as a discussion board.
13. IACEA is a strong advocate for adult education providers – public schools, community colleges, ROEs, and CBOs-- to provide collective representation of the field.
14. IACEA is dedicated to communicating to the state the integrity, compassion, excellence, leadership, and commitment of adult educators in Illinois.
15. IACEA recognizes adult educators through the annual Teacher of the Year, Support Staff of the Year, and Student of the Year awards.
16. IACEA provides, through the Davidson Memorial Fund, financial assistance for those employed in the delivery of adult education services who need help with tuition. Also provided are Venture Grant funds for IACEA members to support activities that promote student/faculty growth and program improvement.