July 20, 2010

Congress Declares National Adult Education and Family Literacy Week 2010
WASHINGTON – The National Coalition for Literacy (NCL) invites you to join them in celebrating National Adult Education and Family Literacy Week, September 13-17, 2010.  This Congressional declaration, H. Res 1472, was sponsored by Rep. Jared Polis [D-CO] and is the culmination of literacy advocacy and outreach resulting in twenty co-signers in the House.
The resolution was originally co-sponsored by Rep. Gary Ackerman  [D-NY] ; Rep. Raul Grijalva [D-AZ]; Rep. Ruben Hinojosa [D-TX]; Rep. Michael Honda [D-CA]; Rep. John Sarbanes [D-MD]; and Rep. John Yarmuth [D-KY]. Additional co-sponsors are as follows:

Adult education and family literacy programs serve adult learners who need to improve their basic literacy and math skills, improve their oral and written English, practice for the GED test to attain a high school equivalence degree, and prepare for community college or vocational training.  According to the latest national survey of adults, over 93 million American adults have Basic or Below Basic literacy skills that limit their ability to advance at work and in education, help their children with school work, interact with their health care professionals, and participate fully in their communities.

Family literacy programs serve parents and their young children, teaching basic skills, English as a Second Language, and parenting skills to the adults while the children are provided high quality preschool programming. These programs are focused on breaking the cycles of low literacy, low education, and poverty. More information about family literacy programs is available at the National Center for Family Literacy, an NCL member, at http://www.famlit.org/.

Find literacy rates for each state and county on the interactive search engine sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education, http://nces.ed.gov/naal/estimates/StateEstimates.aspx. 

Find local literacy programs serving adults in your area at National Literacy Directory http://www.nationalliteracydirectory.org/

The media can celebrate Adult Education and Family Literacy Week by publishing stories and literacy facts to raise the awareness of the general population to the extent of the need and the power of literacy. Join the National Coalition for Literacy on September 15 to celebrate the 2010 NCL Literacy Leaders Awards to be given to outstanding leaders. See more details at http://blog.ncladvocacy.org/2010/07/lla-reception2010/.

Find more literacy facts at www.ncladvocacy.org.  Check the advocacy blog which is hosting guest discussion in July on topics related to adult literacy policy at http://blog.ncladvocacy.org/.