Literacy Initiative

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Literacy Initiative

• Funders Network Meeting
• September 2, 2009

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Purpose of the Meeting

• Share the current situation with respect to
  literacy nationally and locally.
• Share the history of this local literacy
  initiative which is intended to address the
  situation locally.
• Summarize the business plan and obtain your
  suggestions for improving it.

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History of Literacy Initiative

• Phase I Test Feasibility, Assess Current
  Situation, and Build Coalition 2006-2008
• Phase II Engage and Implement (move across the
  tipping point) 2009-2012
• Phase III Nurture and Sustain the Culture of
  Literacy 2013

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History of Literacy Initiative

• Phase I
• June 06 CFSA contracted with the UA College of
  Edu to create State of Literacy Report
• Oct. 06 CFSA Board approved a five year - one
  million dollar literacy initiative
• Nov. 06-Jan. 07 CFSA met with individual
  community leaders to brainstorm how best to
  address literacy issues

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History of Literacy Initiative

• Phase I
• Feb. -May 07 CFSA approved a grant to support
  the Tucson Regional Town Hall and provided the
  literacy report as background material
• July 07 CFSA, Chamber of Commerce TREO
  initiated a community-wide literacy initiative
• Sept. 07 CFSA partners launched literacy
  leadership council

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History of Literacy Initiative

• Phase I
• Nov. Dec. 07 LLC conducted community forums,
  needs assessment, current services assessment and
  funding analysis
• Aug. 08 The Tucson Area Literacy Coalition and
  Literacy Leadership Council merged to form the
  Literacy for Life Coalition
• Nov. 08 CFSA hired LLC Executive Director

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History of Literacy Initiative

• Phase II
• Jan. Feb. 09 LLC ED met one on one with
  business and community leaders
• Feb. -June 09 LLC (about 30 members) develop the
  business plan, select first priority projects and
  actions, and develop work-plans for each project

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History of Literacy Initiative

• Phase II
• Feb. -March 09 A website and social media
  strategy was developed to support the Tucson
  Festival of Books marketing
• March 09 Philanthropists provided support for
  the website and social marketing strategy
• April 09 CFSA became a founding member of the
  National Literacy Funders Network

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History of Literacy Initiative

• Phase II
• June 09 Tucson Festival of Books designated one
  third of its net proceeds to the Coalition
• June 09 Four Coalition members attended the
  National Literacy Conference and participated in
  the development of the United States Declaration
  for the Right to Literacy

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Future of the Literacy Initiative

• Phase III Nurture and Sustain the
• Culture of Literacy 2013

Tucson Flourishes When we Lead in Literacy
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Literacy Trends - National

• Employment and earnings About half of all
  individuals who read at low levels are out of the
  labor force.
• Welfare and poverty The National Institute
  for Literacy estimates that 43 percent of adults
  with low literacy skills live in poverty.
• Health Nationally, additional health care
  expenditures due to low literacy skills are about
  73 billion annually (2001).
• Crime Nationally, nearly half of prison
  inmates do not have a high school diploma, and
  the average reading and math levels of an
  incarcerated adult is at or below the 5th to 8th
  grade level.

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Literacy Trends - National

• Only 71 of American students earn a high school
  diploma, a figure that drops to 58 for Hispanic
  students and 55 for African Americans About
  20 of these are not prepared to succeed in
  college.
• U.S. vs. Other Nations - percentages of high
  school diplomas (21st) and college degrees
  awarded (15th).

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Literacy Trends - National

• One third of 4th graders do not meet reading
  standards
• One third of 8th graders do not meet reading
  standards.
• The median earning of American workers in 1978
  (adjusted for inflation) was 37,004, in 2005 it
  was 37,447, a mere 1.2 increase.

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U.S. vs. Other Nations
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Literacy Trends - Arizona

• Low literacy costs 3.5 billion each year in the
  state budget due to the extra costs of welfare,
  Medicaid, and crime.
• 19 of our adult population lack a high school
  education.
• 15 of adults lack basic prose literacy skills.
  Included in this number are those who could not
  be tested due to language barriers.

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Literacy Trends - Arizona

• Arizona is 46th (out of 50 states) in grade 4
  reading and 43rd in grade four math.
• Only half of Arizona high school graduates are
  eligible for admission to college level work.
  For Hispanic high school graduates, the number is
  35.

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Literacy Trends Arizona
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Literacy Trends - Local

• About half of fourth graders do not read at an
  age appropriate level
• One third of students who start high school drop
  out before finishing
• 20 of adults have basic or below basic reading
  skills
• Nineteen percent of Tucsons population does not
  have a high school education

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Literacy Trends - Local

• Not surprisingly, literacy rates by neighborhood,
  census tract, or zip codes are highly correlated
  with income levels.
• Children of parents who have less than a high
  school education enter kindergarten inadequately
  prepared and frequently do not catch up.
• Only ten percent of adults who want literacy
  services are being served currently in the
  Greater Tucson area. The greatest demand is for
  English as a second language.

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Literacy Zip Codes Pima County

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LLC Business Plan

• Vision
• Tucson Flourishes When we Lead in Literacy
• Mission
• The LLC creates a sustainable culture of
  Literacy in Greater Tucson
• Goal
• Produce 100 literacy through 100 community
  involvement

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The Culture Shift

• From
• We have a problem
• Effort fragmented and inefficient
• Us-Them
• Stigma associated with low literacy
• Embarrassed
• Silent
• Resource shortage

• To
• We are producing outcomes
• Effort coordinated and efficient
• We
• Stigma associated with those who are not engaged
• Proud
• Celebrating
• Resource abundance

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LLC Business Strategy
Three Stream of Action Each Reinforcing the
other Two
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Scope of Literacy

• People often think of literacy solely in terms of
  reading and writing, but there are many aspects
  of literacy that are broader than just the basic
  skills. These include health literacy, workforce
  literacy, financial literacy, computer literacy,
  family literacy, and English for Speakers of
  Other Languages.

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Literacy Infusion

• The infusion model will help coordinate and build
  ownership throughout communities.
• Literacy is not the goal! It is a tool and does
  not belong in any one social issue area but in
  all.

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LLC- Projects

• Create Awareness
• Make website the go to place for literacy
• Partner Tucson Festival of Books
• Produce brochure and fact sheet

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LLC- Projects

• Advocate
• Offer literacy programs in workplaces
• Change policies, funding and legislation

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LLC- Projects

• Build Capacity of Provider Orgs.
• Establish baseline values for measures
• Enhance program operations for providers
• (in accordance with criteria)
• Implement a pilot project in a set of
  neighborhoods to demonstrate measurable changes
• 4. Streamline volunteer recruitment, training
  and placement

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LLC- Measures of Results

• Short-term Outcomes
• children ready for kindergarten
• students K-12 performing at levels appropriate
  for the age (AIMS test categories)
• high school drop out rate and graduation rate

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LLC- Measures of Results

• Short-term Outcomes
• adults receiving GED
• adults with education gains
• adults in college credit classes
• adults entering work training program
• adults who volunteer

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Coalition - Governance
Executive Board Chair Steve Alley
Executive Committee
Providers Network Chairs Jim Lipson, Will
Creamer, Debbie Tinajero
Funders Network Chair Tomas Leon
Steering Committee Executive Director Martha
Gilliland
Action Teams
Advocacy Chairs Regina Suitt, Mel Cohen
Capacity Building Chairs Patty Anders, Nancy
Ledeboer, Paula Trubisky
Awareness Chair Dawn Gardner
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Funding Partners to Date

• Stocker Foundation
• Jonathan Rothshild
• Paul Lindsey
• Altrusa International
• Genematas Foundation
• Tucson Festival of Books
• Pima County Public Library Foundation

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Formal Endorsements

• Tucson Regional Economic Opportunity Joe Snell
• Tucson Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce Jack
  Camper
• So. Arizona Leadership Council Ron Shoopman

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Questions, Discussion Feedback