To equip non-English speaking adults and their young children with English literacy and life skills to promote self-sufficiency and the overall well-being of our students, their families and the greater community.
Literacy Impacts Everything
Lack of English literacy severely limits access to employment, effective parenting, and preventative healthcare while increasing vulnerability to living in poverty.
Individuals at the lowest literacy and numeracy levels have a higher rate of unemployment and earn lower wages than the national average. Low literacy costs the U.S. at least $225 billion each year in non-productivity in the workforce, crime, and loss of tax revenue due to unemployment.
Of adults with the lowest literacy levels, 43% live in poverty, and 70% of adult welfare recipients have low literacy levels. There is a clear correlation between more education and higher earnings, and between higher educational scores and higher earnings.
Children of parents with low literacy skills have a 72% chance of being at the lowest reading levels themselves. These children are more likely to get poor grades, display behavioral problems, have high absentee rates, repeat school years, or drop out.
Removing Barriers to Learning
At Literacy Achieves, we understand the difficulty many non-native English speakers have in finding the time, transportation, childcare or money they need in order to attend English language classes. Our programs are effective because we remove these barriers by providing:
- Convenient Scheduling Located in Neighborhoods of Highest Need
- Access to Quality Early Childhood Programs
- Classes Free of Charge, yet Accountability Driven
- A Structured Program Approach with Multiple Levels Offered Through Daily Classes
Effective Use of More Than 350 Weekly Volunteer Teachers - Compassionate and committed volunteer teachers give students much needed support and encouragement, while developing mutual respect and understanding for one another through a common purpose of learning English.
In 2017-2018 Literacy Achieves, served 1,116 adults and 322 children:
- 95% of workforce students gained, retained or improved their employment.
- 94% of parents increased involvement in their children’s education activities.
- 97% increased their confidence to communicate and 91% learned more about computers.
- 82% of children demonstrated a learning gain of one level or more in five of nine developmental categories measured by the Child Observation Record by the end of the year.