Cottage Crafts Final Report. ESL Cottage Industry Education and Employment Program. July 1, 1982 - June 30, 1983. A 310 Adult Education Project.
Author(s):
Henry, Jean; And Others; Lancaster-lebanon Intermediate Unit 13, Lancaster, Pa.
Format:
Report
Publisher:
1983.
Language:
English
Abstract:
The ESL (English as a second language) Cottage Industry Education and Employment Program was developed to provide ESL and life skills instruction to homebound and elderly refugees while, at the same time, fostering the continuation of native crafts and folklife. The program was the cooperative effort of local adult education staff, leaders and members of the local Hmong and Cambodian communities, and numbers of volunteers. The program, which consisted of an academic and a vocational component, included home-centered language and crafts instruction. Posttesting of the program participants revealed, in most cases, a two-level jump on the English as a Second Language Oral Assessment (ESLOA) and an increase in dexterity involving the pertinent life skills area. The vocational component of the program included the marketing of crafts made by Hmong, Cambodian, and Laotian individuals at such places as museum, consignment, and needlework shops as well as at country club sales and shopping mall kiosks. This component of the program has paid for itself more than five times in terms of the income generated by the participants entering employment and in actual product sales. As a result of the program, 12 persons entered full-time employment, 14 persons entered part-time employment, and the local Hmong community has established its own cooperative food and gift store. (Appendixes include a bibliography and reading list, an outline of life skills units, sample worksheets and test, newspaper articles on the project, and results of a 1981 national survey of Indochinese craft cooperatives.) (MN)