Libraries, No Matter How Small, Can Increase Local Literacy And Mental Health via Navajo Hopi Observer

Libraries, No Matter How Small, Can Increase Local Literacy And Mental Health

Navajo Hopi Observer: 1.08.2019 by Julie Niven, CAPT, USPHS, Mental Health Dept., FCRHC, Red Mesa, Arizona

Literacy is the ability not only to read, but to write, speak and listen in a way that promotes effective communication. Literacy skills help us accurately interpret our world and those in it. Competence in literacy can open many doors in life including those to greater education and better employment. Literacy also impacts how we manage our health and how well we understand our healthcare providers. A lack of literacy has been linked not only to poverty, but poverty’s cousin, incarceration. When an individual is not fully literate, he or she is excluded from one of our country’s most important inalienable rights — the right to vote and have a say in the direction of the country’s governance.

Navajo Nation

The Navajo Nation puts a great deal of emphasis on the need not to only graduate high school, but seek higher education as well. The Tribe grasps and promotes the idea that education leads to opportunity, which can disrupt a trend toward poverty and downward mobility.

One simple way to increase literacy is to increase the availability of materials children and adults can access and enjoy based on their varying interests. One of the best resources for just such is a library. However, on the reservation, the libraries are few and many miles in between. This is one reason why a small lending library was created in the northern Four Corners area of the Navajo Reservation. At Four Corners Regional Health Center (FCRHC) located in Red Mesa Arizona, there is a bookcase holding over 225 books available to be checked out by community members and clinic staff alike.  READ MORE >>