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@ncldc.net for posting here.
Invite your House Member and two Senators to attend the NCL Literacy Leadership Awards reception held in Washington, D.C., September 15, 2010. Forward this invitation as-is or add a personalized message. Click here for contact information.
Contact local, state, or federal policymakers and invite them to visit your program. See Contacting Legislators for general tips.
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.
Issue press releases to all local media outlets.
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 for a federal increase in appropriations to $750 million, and to restore funding for Even Start Family Literacy Programs.
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 111th Congress and address the Coalition’s issues. WIA has never been reauthorized 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 health legislation, immigration reform, workforce and 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 policy co-chairs Marsha Tait or Jackie Taylor 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 byemailing NCLand we will embed your video here.
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