Just what is literacy?  Sure, I understand what literary means, (as in the literary works of Shakespeare or Poe) but literacy?  The National Institute For Literacy defines it as "The ability to read, write and speak in English, and compute and solve problems at levels necessary to function on the job and in society, to achieve one's goals, and develop one's potential." 

Okay, so what is a literacy council?  It is an organization that trains volunteer tutors.  Tutors are then matched with individuals who have failed to attain, for whatever reason, the educational skills needed to function in everyday life.  Most programs work with adults and/or children in small group or one-to-one instruction.  In READ's case the program is guided by a Board of Directors as a non-profit organization.  These  programs are available all over America and in many other countries. 

READ (Reading Education ADvancement) is a not-for-profit community based volunteer organization that offers confidential tutoring services at no charge to residents of Hot Spring, Clark and Saline Counties.  We added the latter two counties spring 2009 with the goal to create and strengthen literacy programs there.  Both counties have adult education programs (AE), but while AE does work with low-level literacy, they do not have the resources to afford one-to-one services.   They focus on classroom and computer instruction offering levels from brushing up on your skills to getting your GED.  Without the help of the AE programs in Clark and Saline, we would be unable to set up successful literacy programs.   

Folks like you and me attend a free 12-hour training workshop to become a certified tutor.  We try to have lots of fun while learning in the workshop.  If you have fun when you become a tutor, you are able to retain and use examples of the fun for use with your student.  Laughter is very conducive to learning.  That is one of our program's philosophies!

A learner (also called a student) enrolls and is assessed for base educational levels and learning styles.  Once assessed, the learner is matched with a tutor.  The match meets for one to two hours per session in a public location once or twice a week.  This depends on what the tutor and learner agree on, another advantage of one-to-one tutoring.

Every literacy council has many stories of the major influence their program has made in people's lives.  Some successes may be as simple as gaining better self esteem.  In many cases, people make radical changes for the better in their lives and the lives of their families.  Jobs get better, opportunities grow, self-esteem (always) grows and parents serves as better examples to their children.

Iif evurything yew red luukt liek thiss yew mite halve uh difikult tiem reeding, tew.  Yess, lituresee duz maek uh diffruns in uh pursun's lief!