THE REASON AND PURPOSE OF COMMUNITY LITERACY COLLABORATIONS The National Illiteracy Action Project offers a five-year plan to reverse the illiteracy trend in America by creating Community Literacy Collaborations to solve America�s illiteracy problem The purpose of Community Literacy Collaborations is to provide literacy educational tutoring services to Title 1 students, to provide literacy educational tutoring services to adult workforce participants and to encourage the creation of community collaborations. Participation in a family literacy program can best be implemented with the community as a hub. America needs Community Literacy Collaborations to help increase parental knowledge of their rights in the education of their children. These collaborations will encourage participation and achievement in Federally funded adult literacy programs, the Federally funded No Child Left Behind Supplemental Education Services and the hundreds of private and business funded literacy programs. First, illiteracy is a community problem, NOT a school educational problem, and needs to have Community Literacy Collaborations involved to help reach the families in the illiterate population. These Community Literacy Collaborations must be comprised of businesses, faith-based organizations, and other community partners. Secondly, the current literacy programs used by organizations, funded by the Workforce Investment Act and US Department of Education must be changed and new programs that work based on the scientific research results of the National Reading Panel study must be utilized . Thirdly, these Community Literacy Collaborations are motivated and benefited by the economic and community achievement of functionally literate adults. The maintaining and control of individuals running the program components is already in place at the Federal level (National Leadership Activities) and does not require any additional Federal funds, (such as Title I NCLB SES Supplemental Educational Services, Workforce Investment Act and Adult Education) to operate these collaborations. BENEFITS As the education level of an adult improves, so does their children's success in school. Helping low-literate adults improve their basic skills has a direct and measurable impact on both the education and quality of life of their children. Children of adults who participate in literacy programs improve their grades and test scores, improve their reading skills, and are less likely to drop out. As with other community and county organizations in which collaboration has been successful, this type of collaboration allows each member to play a specific, predefined role and keeps control of the program in the hands of the stakeholders. Hence, it ensures that each student meets their academic achievement goals. High school and adult students need to have a strong foundation of academic literacy skills and training for high-wage careers.
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