TEXAS Adult & Family Literacy QUARTERLY

Professional Wisdom for Adult and Family Literacy

35 Ways Your Church Can Promote Adult and Family Literacy in Your Community

by Lester Meriwether

In my role as Coordinator of Literacy ConneXus, I help churches and other religious organizations to develop a literacy outreach program through technical assistance, networking, and training. The roots of Literacy ConneXus go back over 50 years to the development of the Laubach Literacy Center at Baylor in 1957. This Center was started in response to a challenge by President Dwight D. Eisenhower at Baylor’s commencement in 1956, and was housed in at least four departments on Baylor’s campus until funding dried up in 1968. Through this Center and its innovative first director, Dr. Richard Cortwright, many churches began literacy programs in the late 1950s and early 1960s.  Dr. Cortwright used television as an instructional tool as early as 1958.

After a 20-year hiatus, I became first director of the Baptist Literacy Missions Center at Baylor in 1988. This Center continued in one form or another until 2002 when it essentially went dormant. In 2004, I was hired to form Literacy ConneXus with a view toward establishing similar projects on other university campuses. The School of Social Work at Baylor University supports literacy work through its Center for Family and Community Center via materials and networking. Literacy ConneXus is led by a multi-denominational board, although most funding currently comes from Texas Baptist churches.

I would like to share the following suggestions to promote adult and family literacy in your community:

1. Identify and equip an “education advocate” in every congregation.
2. Encourage celebration of educational achievement at every level.
3. Create coalitions with other groups to promote educational issues.
4. Encourage college students to serve as “educational ambassadors” with at-risk families.
5. Provide training opportunities in cultural competency for literacy program leadership.
6. Offer summer intern programs to provide speakers for conferences to address educational opportunities/resources.
7. Support Even Start Family Literacy and Head Start parent involvement and parenting education programs in local communities.
8. Honor teachers and literacy tutors for their work.
9. Encourage youth to enter the teaching profession and to volunteer as tutors.
10. Tap into the desire for biblical literacy to motivate adult participation in literacy programs.
11. Encourage teaching of basic character, civic virtues, and civic involvement.
12. Advocate for health education and health literacy in your community.
13. Support thoughtful reform of public education.
14. Encourage mentoring of at-risk children, youth, and families.
15. Advocate for adequate funding of public education.
16. Advocate for lifelong access to education as a basic human right, rather than an “extra” to fund through alternative revenues such as gambling.
17. Create motivational experiences for adults and children together (family literacy).
18. Support preschool and family literacy projects such as Books for the Border.
19. Use your church’s library in nontraditional ways.
20. Begin an English as a Second Language ministry.
21. Begin an adult literacy program.
22. Help adults earn their GED.
23. Provide citizenship education.
24. Sponsor computer literacy classes.
25. Host financial literacy instruction.
26. Develop family literacy programs.
27. Provide parenting classes.
28. Affirm churches who are creatively and successfully advocating educational attainment.
29. Develop networks and partnerships among congregations to address educational issues.
30. Assist high school dropouts in re-engaging in school through networks with schools and adult education programs.
31. Encourage dropouts to consider an adult education program to prepare for vocational training or further education.
32. Build partnerships between churches and at-risk schools.
33. Build a collaborative partnership with a local adult literacy program that has access to government funds for literacy.
34. Support or begin a Reach Out and Read program in partnership with a local pediatric clinic. (See www.reachoutandread.org)
35. Support local libraries including those in churches and schools.

Above list based on:

Abriendo Puertas! Opening Doors for Hispanic Youth (Report of the Hispanic Education Task Force of the Baptist General Convention of Texas) and Public Education and the Church – Resolution #263 - The General Board of Church and Society of the United Methodist Church.

Contact Literacy ConneXus for additional information about this list and how your church can further educate and promote literacy in your community. Or share ways your church is already doing one of these projects - info@literacyconnexus.org

About the Author

Lester Meriwether is Executive Director of Literacy ConneXus, Inc., (www.literacyconnexus.org) which is headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas. He can be reached at (817) 696-9898 or via email: Lester@literacyconnexus.org.