Finding Common Ground on Housing
Communities across California are being challenged by rising housing costs. For example, in reports about recently released data from the California Realtor’s Association, only 27% of Californians have adequate income to buy a median-priced home. That’s less than half the 56% peak rate in the first quarter of 2012. In California’s San Mateo County, the rate is even lower: 14% [...]
New Tools to Navigate the News
Common Knowledge was pleased to partner with the Pacific Library Partnership (PLP) to help design the recently launched News Literacy Toolkit with resources for librarians as well as the community at large. The array of free materials was developed with a multi-level “community-driven design” approach that began with a survey and regional forum of library leaders and journalists, followed by [...]
An Update on The New Resume Project
More and more jobs are advertised online and computers are screening the resumes. Creating a resume that gets read and noticed is hard for anyone and can be especially challenging for adult literacy students. Research by the U.S. Department of Education indicates that nearly 25 percent of adults in California struggle with basic literacy skills. For these adults, searching for [...]
Bay Area libraries launch news literacy initiative
It’s no secret that we’re fans of libraries. In case we needed another reason, Bay Area libraries are taking an exciting step to address news literacy and help prevent the spread of fake news. With assistance from Common Knowledge Group, Pacific Library Partnership (PLP) – a network of 42 Bay Area libraries – is launching a region-wide initiative aimed at [...]
Home for All selects pilot cities in San Mateo County
Communities throughout the Bay Area are being challenged by how the increase in jobs outpaces increases in housing supply. To address the jobs/housing gap, the County of San Mateo convened a multi-sector task force, which has become the Home for All initiative. Led by County of San Mateo Supervisors Don Horsley and Warren Slocum, the Home for All Initiative is [...]
Free Webinars about Listening and Facilitation
Listening is one of those skills we use all the time, but usually not very well. There is a difference between authentic listening and waiting for the other person to finish talking so you can get your turn to speak. In a debate, we selectively listen for the “weak points” in the other person’s thoughts so we can advance our [...]