Literacy – Spanning the US :: Coffee Co TN :: Williamsburg VA :: Monongalia & Preston Co's WV

Literacy: Spanning the U.S.     

The Literacy Council

Literacy Council celebrates 30 years

Tullahoma News: 10.14.2018 by Faith Few

The Literacy Council, a nonprofit organization that promotes adult basic education, celebrates its 30th birthday this month. Founded in 1988, it was one of the first nonprofit organizations in Coffee County.

“The goal of the Literacy Council is simple,” said Dot Watson, a former president of the council. “The goal is to support and promote adult basic education in Coffee County. We are able to do this with the help of our many volunteers and books donated to our store. Since we are a group that promotes literacy, we wanted our fundraising efforts to reflect that.”

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In addition to helping with funds for the HiSET, the Literacy Council supplies its education centers in Coffee County with phone and Wi-Fi services, computers, teaching materials and supplemental salaries for teachers.

The Literacy Council has also helped to get classes started in the Coffee County Jail to help inmates get jobs once they are released.  READ MORE >>

@Literacy_4_Life

October is Health Literacy Month!

Williamsburg CC: 10.15.2018

Literacy is a stronger predictor of a person’s health than income, employment status, education level, or race or ethnicity. An estimated thirty-five percent of all adults in the U.S. do not have the ability to understand basic health information and services to make appropriate decisions. People with low health literacy are more likely to skip important preventative measures and to enter the health care system when they’re sicker. They’re more likely to have chronic conditions and less likely to manage them effectively. They are significantly more likely to report their health as poor.

Low health literacy doesn’t just affect patients. It strains the health care system itself, resulting in preventable hospital visits and admissions, longer stays, higher readmission rates, and extra tests, procedures and prescriptions. The estimated health costs of low literacy in the United States are $106 billion to $236 billion. For businesses, improved health literacy of employees can increase productivity and reduce sick leave.

Through a grant from the Williamsburg Health Foundation, Literacy for Life designed the innovative HEAL Program to address the issue of low health literacy, drawing on its expertise as a premier adult literacy organization with a 43-year track record. The HEAL Program addresses the problem of low health literacy with a two-pronged approach: HEAL classes help people increase their knowledge of current health care topics, medical terminology, and standard processes and practices. HEAL also ensures that medical professionals can recognize patients with low literacy and low health literacy and know how to take steps to communicate with them more effectively.  READ MORE >>

Literacy program in Mon and Preston counties shares need-to-read

The Dominion Post: 10.18.2018 by William Dean

@RubyReadWV

Signs around WVU’s Woodburn Circle alerted people to statistics about literacy during Literacy Volunteers of Monongalia & Preston Counties Need-to-Read Read-In, Thursday.

The goal of the event was to promote awareness of LVMPC’s programs, volunteer Joe Wakim said.

“Just bring a book and read,” Jackson Jacobs said.

LVMPC works with a wide range of people from native West Virginians who slipped through the cracks and struggle with adult illiteracy to international students at WVU who want to work on improving their English, Jacobs said.

Wakim said the non-profit has worked with people from across the globe, including Russia, Saudi Arabia, China, Iran, France, Syria.  READ MORE >>