PROJECT OVERVIEW

This year's participating programs embodied a wide range of adult literacy services (beginning-to-advanced ESOL classes, beginning-to-advanced ABE classes, Native Language Literacy classes, Family Literacy classes and volunteer tutoring programs within both community-based organizations and community college settings.) Teachers were encouraged to implement the FannieMae Foundation curricula and to custom design new lessons and teaching approaches using it as a jumping off point. This year's project generated close to 70 new homebuying readiness lessons.

Some of the topics that were addressed in these lessons include: information about the availability of loans and subsidy programs for low income buyers, the process of buying and maintaining a condominium or two- or three-family home, the steps involved in documenting a non-traditional credit history, the issues and responsibilities embedded within tenant/landlord relations and the various resources and supports available from neighborhood and regional government housing programs.

Also, this year we expanded the Internet and WorldWide Web technology component of the project so that we could offer up-to-date computer training for teachers, and opportunities for computer literacy to students.

The result of these classroom-based trainings is an on-line student manual meant to direct students to some of the homebuying readiness materials now available on the WorldWide Web. Organized around students' actual questions about homebuying, the manual works to provide answers; however, equally important, the manual models question-asking as a method of student learning.

Our emphasis, throughout the three-year project, was how to best adapt the homebuying curricula to the specific needs of the many different teachers and students whom we serve -- teachers who differ in their styles, expertise and teaching contexts and students who differ in their English language competence, economic backgrounds, motivational levels and sense of identity as Americans.

We hope the project has helped to provide necessary homebuying and housing-related information and resources to a host of adult education teachers and students in all their varied circumstances.
 

PROVIDING TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE AND MENTORING WITHIN A CONTENT-BASED INSTRUCTIONAL MODEL

The design of the project encouraged teachers to collaborate and to share expertise, as well as to participate in more traditional homebuying readiness training activities. In an effort to respect teachers' prior teaching experience and their individual methods and interests, the coordinator of the project provided on-site technical assistance to the participating teachers. These on-site visits provided the venue for teachers to reflect on the challenges of content-based instructional models and to design lessons accordingly.

Collaborative lesson planning, chances to co-teach homebuying lessons, as well as periods of time set aside for the researching and sharing of first time homebuying/home ownership community resources and programs for students were common features of this model.

The staff development trainings also included a series of homebuying curriculum and resource trainings and the sharing of "model lessons." The lessons were developed in response to challenges that were articulated by participating teachers.

The final phase of the training included conferencing with teachers and/or editing the final documentation of their work.
 

INTEGRATING COMMUNITY HOMEBUYING RESOURCES

Another goal of the project was to build on its already existing homebuying contacts so as to further integrate neighborhood, city and state homebuying/home ownership agencies and resources into the curricula. For instance, Doreen Traecy of the City of Boston's Department of Community and Neighborhood Development spoke with teachers about such programs as the "soft second mortgage," and provided listings of first time homebuying classes for students who were interested. In one instance, Doreen Traecy was able to provide access to a Spanish-language first-time homebuying class; this prompted students from two different programs to participate in first time homebuying classes.

Other students were made aware of a variety of first time homebuying resources such as the Boston Ecumenical Social Action Committee's Sustainable Home Ownership Programs which included foreclosure prevention counseling, lead paint abatement information and Senior Home Repair resources and ACORN/BankBoston/FannieMae Foundation's Bank Fair, intended to assist in procuring available grants and loans designed for low income home owners and small business owners.

As well as encouraging students to attend first time homebuying/owning events, workshops and financial planning counseling outside of the realm of their adult education programs, much first time homebuying activity happened within the context of the classroom. People from neighborhood banks and credit unions visited two programs; a panel of student homeowners conducted a question/answer forum in yet another program; two classes visited banks in order to open checking accounts and speak with the banks' mortgage lenders; and one program invited a local first-time homebuying agency to conduct a three-part homebuying and financial awareness workshop.

During these "in-house" homebuying readiness sessions, students not only learned important and practical homebuying information (federal and state fair housing practices, mortgage and financing information, programs for first time homebuyers, and the actual step-by-step process of buying and maintaining a home), but  they also learned about who to contact, where to go and what to ask for once they felt ready to begin looking for homes. These opportunities to meet homebuying professionals in neighborhood and classroom settings -- realtors, mortgage lenders and first-time homebuying-class teachers -- demystified the homebuying process.  For many students who participated in this project, for the first time, home ownership was viewed as a tangible goal made up of ascertainable and concrete steps.