The Literacy Council of Wake County improves the lives of adults, youth, and families by teaching basic literacy and life skills for economic and social success. Nora Casper, Community Outreach Director, visited with us and shared how the organization works to raise the literacy rate in Wake County. But that rate is just a statistic. What is behind that statistic are the almost immeasurable ways that learning to read can change lives on a daily basis. Things that most of us take for granted like being able to read to our children or the ability to read the instructions on medicine bottles to take it properly or the ability to read signs to know how to get where we need to go or how to find groceries in a store. Nora shared some touching stories of how grandparents are learning to read and beginning to break the cycle of illiteracy in families.
There are several programs run by the organization which include the Adult Tutoring program (largest) which consists of one-on-one tutoring for 90 minutes two times per week, the Juvenile Literacy Center which is oriented to help students get back in school and/or back on track to learn to read at their grade level, and Project LIFT (Literacy Instruction for Families Together) which is designed to educate the entire family and help parents teach their children properly. And that is not all, they offer many other smaller community initiatives which revolve around subjects like health, finances, civics, workplace literacy, amongst others.
As you might imagine many volunteers are needed to support these programs. There are roughly 150 volunteers currently, but more are needed. If you would like to help you can contact them by emailing info@wakeliteracy.org or check out their web site at www.wakeliteracy.org for more information.