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Program Directors
Do you have suggestions for awareness-raising activities you would like to share to help promote Adult Education and Family Literacy Week?
Email them to ncl@ncladvocacy.org for posting here.
Create a city or county resolution commemorating National Adult Education and Family Literacy Week:
- Contact communications staff in your county executive’s office and at the mayor’s office.
- Ask if they would create a local proclamation commemorating the week.
- Send them a copy of H. Res. 385, introduced in the House by Congressman Jared Polis, as sample text they could use in creating a local proclamation.
- Invite public officials to attend an event you plan to host that week and ask them to read the local proclamation at the event.
- Issue local press releases about it and hold a photo opportunity with the press and public officials.
- Email your photos from the event or media opportunity to the National Coalition for Literacy. We will pin them on the Campaign Map and add them to the Photo Slide Show.
Contact local, state, or federal policymakers and invite them to visit your program. See Contacting Legislators for general tips.
Hosting Local Policymakers and Key Stakeholders: The Los Angeles County Office of Adult Education offers a number of tips for family literacy programs in preparing for the visit, hosting the visitor, and following up after the visit. The guide has a template to complete that will help with preparation.
Contact local media, alerting them of the commemorative week. Share adult literacy facts matched with local data, including program successes, the need and demand for services. Share adult learner success stories.
Share Resources on Need for Services.
Share Resources on Demand for Services.
Share data on the Return on Investment of Adult Education and Family Literacy
Issue press releases to all local media outlets.
- Coming Soon: Sample Press Release
Invite media and policymakers to visit www.ncladvocacy.org for facts on adult education and family literacy.
Share Adult Learner Success Stories.
- Invite adult learners who you would like to cultivate as spokespersons to speak during an event you host at your program.
- Organize a “Right to Literacy Forum” where adult learners gather share their successes and challenges.
- Gather a few select written adult learner success stories from your program and share them with policymakers and the media.
Follow Up.
You might be asked clarifying questions from legislators and the media. Here is an example.
Question: Are you asking for an increase in funding or for specific legislation for adult education?
Answer: With regard to funding, the National Coalition for Literacy, with national and state adult literacy advocacy groups, is asking Congress to preserve funding for adult education, which is provided for by the Workforce Investment Act. We would also like to see an increase of $160 million to help clear the waiting lists for adult education and English language acquisition classes.
With regard to legislation, the National Coalition for Literacy, with national and state adult literacy advocacy groups, is asking Congress to reauthorize the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) during the 112th Congress and address the Coalition’s issues. WIA has never been changed and we have been operating under the same laws as enacted in 1998.
The National Coalition for Literacy is also asking Congress to consider and include adult education and literacy issues with respect to jobs and the economy, health legislation, immigration reform, community college initiatives, reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, and other national issues impacted by adult literacy rates in the U.S.
Contact NCL at ncl@ncladvocacy.org if you have questions about responding to legislators or the media regarding Adult Education and Family Literacy Week or NCL public policy positions.
Additional Program Ideas
- Hold a press conference to publicize adult and family literacy issues in the community.
- Establish one-day hotline that community members call with questions about reading, learning disabilities, literacy programs, and resources. Staff hotline with reading professionals/volunteers from literacy organizations.
- Create a partnership with a television/radio station, magazine/newspaper to support literacy projects.
- Join a radio show to talk about adult education and family literacy issues.
- Write an op-ed for your newspaper on adult education and family literacy.
- Ask a local business to help heighten awareness about a reading or literacy topic. A supermarket chain may agree to print a literacy message on its shopping bags. A local dairy might carry tips for parents on its packaging. Many utility suppliers feature community issues in newsletters sent with monthly bills.
- Organize local businesses to raise money to purchase magazines and books for area adult education and family literacy programs.
- Invite local businesses to write a letter to the editor of local papers and to policymakers in support of adult education and family literacy. They could discuss how it impacts workforce competitiveness, business and industry.
- Add a video to You Tube about National Adult Education and Family Literacy Week and share what your program is doing to raise awareness. Create your own (students know how to do this!) or link to one of these (or to one like them):
- Tell us about it by emailing NCL and we will embed your video here.
- Publish a blog article about adult education and family literacy on your blog (or link to the NCL Advocacy Blog). Tell us about your blog article by emailing NCL and we will add it to our Blog Roll.
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