About Us

Our Mission

To provide dynamic resources that support organizations to successfully increase the literacy skills of adults, families and children.

Description

Established in 2001, our goal is to assist and partner with community-based education and literacy programs by providing cutting edge technology support, professional development training, and targeted educational material and resources. Our services include:

• Promoting collaboration between education and literacy programs to share curriculum, resources, and ideas locally and nationally.
• Supporting research and design of materials promoting more effective instruction, methods, and assessment in distance learning.
• Developing and disseminating free educational material delivered through the Internet, CDs and video.
• Providing staff development support and training on literacy topics and in the integration of technology in learning and teaching.
• Assisting in resource and grant development.

In addition, through our vast network of partnerships, Literacyworks promotes more successful collaboration between education and literacy programs to share curriculum, resources, and ideas.

Need

According to an estimate by the National Institute for Literacy, 40 million Americans function at the lowest skill levels in reading, writing, and math. 60% of American adults read English at a 7th grade level or below. Most of these adults have limited access to literacy material and instruction. In addition, learners in rural areas are often hampered by a lack of access to libraries, community colleges, and adult education centers.

Even when educational material is available, it often fails because it's not developed for ethnically and culturally diverse learners with multiple learning styles. Local literacy providers and learners desperately need access to free, quality, and culturally appropriate literacy materials.

What We Believe

We believe in life-long learning. As individuals increase their literacy skills they are able to secure better jobs, manage their personal lives, advocate for themselves, enhance their parenting skills, and contribute more to their community. In short, they are better able to improve their quality of life.

What We Do

Literacyworks also coordinates the Regional Professional Development Center in Region 4 (16 Western/Pacific states and islands) for the Literacy Information and Communication Network System (LINCS) of the federal Department of Education. Through the LINCS Project we partner with national, state and local library and education programs. We also run many projects that support literacy programs. Word Up! (at http://wordupfair.org) is one example of how we bring awareness of learning opportunities to the community. We help support these programs through our Literacyworks Fund.