Change Lives: Help Us Teach Adults to Read

She had bright intelligent eyes. She stood her ground fiercely, like there was no way she was giving up. 35 years old and a single mother of two young children, she could only read at a first-grade level.

 

“I want to read!” Fatima said.

“Let’s do it!” I said. I figured it would be an easy fix. Just show her how, right?

 

It turns out it's not so easy. Most adults with low-literacy skills have some form of dyslexia, often in addition to a multi-generational literacy deficit, topped off by many years of educational trauma.

 

Most of them have been trying for their entire lives to learn to read.

 

When I realized I couldn't figure this out on my own, I began asking around:

HOW DO YOU TEACH ADULTS TO READ?!

 

What I discovered was disheartening and shocking; the adult literacy world has mostly given up on the massive population of low-skilled readers. Most basic literacy programs have closed. If they are still in operation, they use ineffective methods that have been discredited.

I heard over and over that it probably wasn't possible to teach an adult to read.

 

And using volunteers to teach reading, with a real, complex curriculum? Forget it!

 

I’m here to tell you — and our many students will back us up — that it can be done.

Adults — even if they are dyslexic — can learn to read! But they need a high-quality, research-backed method of instruction, and they need trained tutors.

 

The good news is that volunteers can be those tutors. They need a rigorous training program, a user-friendly curriculum, and support. But adults like Fatima can be helped.

 

It's been 12 years since that realization, and in that time the Volunteer Literacy Project was born.

 

Here’s what we do:

• We teach adults how to read!

• We use our own phonics-based curriculum written especially for adult students.

• We train volunteers to teach the curriculum.

• We provide tablets and other materials so that students can access remote tutoring.

 

And our program works! Here are some of the things our students say:

 

• "All of a sudden words jump out at me everywhere I go.”

• "I was lost, and I started reading the street signs. My wife starts yelling, "You can read!"

• "At my new job they give me a checklist every day. I can read it."

• "These classes changed my life. I can read now."

• "My goal was to learn to read before I died. I did that."

• "My scores went up so much that they are putting me in a GED class."

• "I passed the test. I got my high school diploma!"

 

36 million adults in the United States are locked behind a cruel barrier: illiteracy. They can’t read street signs or restaurant menus or health information or job applications or any other of a multitude of texts you and I take for granted.

We need your help to change this. Without you, individuals like Fatima will struggle to

be an effective member of our societies.

 

It's been 12 years since Fatima walked into my program. She learned how to read, went on to get her high school diploma, and saw her children through college.

We've seen other students get better jobs, begin reading to their children, and be able get around the world on their own, reading signs, reading their mail, even reading books on their own.

 

We want to do more of this for others. Will you stand with us?

 

Join us as we fight this essential social justice issue: literacy.

Thank you for your support,

PS Only you can make a difference by donating today to Volunteer Literacy Project Inc.,

because only you are reading these words right this minute. Someone in your past was

concerned enough to encourage and equip you to read. Someone out there is waiting

for you to support their dream of reading.

Larissa Phillips

Director and Founder

Volunteer Literacy Project