For The Love Of A Literacy

Imagine sitting down at a restaurant and opening the menu. You scan the pages for any pictures you can find, glossing over the names and descriptions because they hold no meaning to you. You point to the most appetizing picture before handing the menu back to the waiter.

Or you could be enjoying time with a group of friends or coworkers — until the conversation turns to the latest internet trend, a shocking headline from today’s paper or a tantalizing new recipe everyone should try. You might mirror the reactions of your peers, but otherwise, fall silent.

Or maybe you want to obtain a driver’s license, but the thought of having to pass a written test seems too monumental a task, so you settle for relying on family members for rides when needed.

These experiences may be foreign to most, but for millions of Americans — including several thousand across Lee County — these kinds of experiences are all too familiar.

For more than three decades, the Lee County Literacy Coalition has been working to advance adult literacy at the local level. By doing so, the organization aims to help adults improve their quality of life and influence future generations for good.

THE NUMBERS

According to international nonprofit ProLiteracy, more than 43 million adults across the United States cannot read, write or do basic math above a third-grade level.

In Lee County, that number is a little more than 24,000 — about 20% of the area’s adult population, according to the most recent survey from the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC).

But it isn’t just adults who are being affected. The consequences of adult illiteracy often fall on children as well. A 2015 report from the U.S. Department of Education found that link to be stronger in the United States than in many other countries, with children of less-educated parents being 10 times more likely to become low-skilled adults themselves.

“That’s one of the reasons why we want to invest in adult literacy,” said Patricia Butts, executive director of LCLC. “If you invest in adult literacy, you actually are helping the children.”

During the pandemic, many parents faced new challenges as schools shut down, homes became classrooms and children increasingly turned to Mom or Dad for help. That resulted in a bigger gap in performance as more children were left behind.

“Think of a parent who is struggling with their literacy, and now they have to help their child with their homework,” Butts said. “Those types of things are important, so we focus on assisting those adults that want to get help to improve their literacy, and then they’ll be more tooled to help their children.”

Area advocates Thomas Brawner and Thomas Worden co-founded LCLC, then known as the Lee County Reading Program, in 1989 in the wake of first lady Barbara Bush’s literacy initiative.

What began as a small, localized initiative soon grew to become an incorporated nonprofit and United Way of Lee County agency, equipped with a board of directors and several AmeriCorps VISTA volunteers.

“They definitely laid a wonderful foundation, but we want to stretch things out,” Butts who was appointed to the board of directors in 2017 and onboarded as executive director in 2019

said.

LCLC has been a United Way award recipient each year since its inception, and with added support from the Dollar General Literacy Foundation and several smaller foundations and individual donors, the nonprofit has expanded its operations over the years.

Today, LCLC offers an array of programs, workshops, fundraisers and outreach events to educate the community. It’s not just about reading, though.

“It’s also about those other things that we can assist with,” Butts said.

These include financial, health and digital literacy, as well as GED and driver’s license test preparation.

Its 2021 annual report indicated that the LCLC literacy programs and services benefited 530 people, but this year, the organization hopes to reach even more.

ADVOCACY AT WORK

The Lee County Literacy Coalition is most known for its “One to One” tutoring program. Volunteer tutors are trained and paired with a learner with whom they meet on a regular basis to practice and boost skills in a particular area of literacy. Most often, pairs will meet at the LCLC office or at a local public library.

However, the pandemic forced most of these meetings online in 2020.

“Zoom became the landing space, and so we were able to get our tutors and learners trained and pair some of them on that platform,” Butts said. “Some of them did not graduate to

[Zoom], but they continued to meet on the phone, and some just stopped altogether because of the unknown.”

By June 2021, LCLC was able to reopen with a reconfigured office space that was more friendly to social distancing. The team has also spent the new year gearing up for in-person events like Scrabble Scramble and the fifth-annual Reading Between the Wines. Last year’s Reading Between the Wines saw small groups meet at host homes to enjoy the festivities streamed live via Facebook.

Of course, navigating these unprecedented changes requires a well-oiled machine of dedicated individuals, and Butts is quick to tout her team as one with a “heart to serve.”

Auburn University graduate students Austin Pearson and Natasha Demick are two AmeriCorps VISTA volunteers who were drawn to the literacy cause through LCLC and decided to join. Both are pursuing a master’s degree in public administration with a focus in nonprofits.

“One of the main areas of interest for me is improving the quality of public education, so when I was looking for

internship opportunities, I was trying to find places that I could try to learn more about how the education system has or hasn’t worked for people and be able to get some practical experience along those lines,” Pearson said. “When I was looking around, I saw [LCLC], and I just really liked it. It seemed like it would be a great place to learn.”

Pearson joined LCLC in June 2021, and upon completing his internship, he onboarded as the learner engagement coordinator. It’s his job to make sure potential learners are aware of LCLC and how it can benefit them.

One project he’s eager to implement is a network of popup libraries. LCLC is in the process of building small bookshelves and identifying community partners willing to host one of these tiny libraries.

“We’re going to be trying to set them up in different businesses or recreational hotspots,” Pearson said. “It’s completely free to everybody … just something small that we can try and do.”

Butts said the shelves will also contain a QR code linked to a video to make the experience more inclusive for those who struggle to read.

And for those who might be wondering what a QR code is or how to use one — among other things technological — there’s an LCLC workshop for that.

Auburn undergraduate student Ashley Patton has only spent a few weeks interning with LCLC, but she’s already making her mark as a tutor and facilitator of a digital literacy workshop aimed at helping participants learn how to make the most of their smartphones.

“[The workshop] ended up being great … and we were able to help out where we could,” she said.

One participant even sent a thank-you note and made a donation, Butts said.

“That was unexpected but very welcome. We were glad that we could help that part of the community, even though it wasn’t specifically about reading.”

Another program, the “Legacy Learning Project,” is a monthly family literacy program held at Covington Recreation Center in Opelika. Families who complete the program will

receive a donation of a “starter library” in April.

For those learning English as a second language, a bimonthly ESL book club offers a safe space for participants to practice and hone their English skills.

Demick, LCLC’s volunteer recruitment coordinator, is currently revamping the organization’s website and social media pages. She said the growing response is “really gratifying,” and she’s using that as a tool to attract a new wave of volunteers.

“It feels like a very big community engagement, and everyone is really supportive,” she said.

“It’s completely free to everybody … just something small that we can try and do.” ~Pearson

HOW YOU CAN HELP

Raising awareness of LCLC and its mission remains the organization’s top priority.

“We need people to know who we are,” Butts said. “We can’t help anyone if they don’t know we’re here.”

She added that no contribution of time, money or talent is

too small. Something as simple as interacting with LCLC’s social media pages can make a big impact.

“People can like and share and boost our social media and then pass the word because the folks that need us most may not know about us,” she said.

Demick is also working to help expand LCLC’s volunteer opportunities. That might include things like teaching a class, helping at an event or doing administrative work at the office.

“Some people might be able to give just the hour,” Butts acknowledged. “Maybe they can help us paint a wall, or help us organize some books or help us with an event … We can find a way so that they can add value and be of service.”

And for those short on time, Butts suggested looking into sustainable giving, which could be as little as $10 a month for a year — the equivalent of two or three cups of coffee.

LCLC has also erected a junior board this year and is inviting college-aged students and young professionals to join.

“We want to make sure this institutional knowledge is shared with that next group of folks that’s going to keep the Lee County Literacy Coalition continuing,” Butts said. “We need to make sure we’ve got those next people ready.”

LCLC is located at 1365 Gatewood Dr. #519 in Auburn. It is open Monday through Thursday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and by appointment Friday and Saturday. Services are free to all.

To keep up with LCLC or get in contact, follow its social media or visit www.leecountyliteracy.org.

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334-569-6459

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