Program recruiting, training volunteer tutors

Goal is to try to combat ‘literacy crisis in America’

The ability to read and write is a critical skill, according to someone who works daily to provide that tool to others.

“The literacy crisis in America is reaching critical mass,” said David Stephens, literacy grants manager for the Adult Education Department at South Suburban College in South Holland.

“This directly affects an individual’s health and well-being. Illiteracy can be debilitating in many ways for adults who never received the proper instruction and is passed on to the next generation. Adults who are unable to read experience difficulty completing many daily activities that others may take for granted, along with a disadvantage in today’s competitive job market.”

People who can’t read likely will have trouble getting a driver’s license, paying bills, ordering from a restaurant, reading road signs or getting and keeping a job.

Essentially, fighting illiteracy equates to fighting poverty and early mortality, Stephens said, and it “becomes increasingly important as we become more dependent on technology.”

“I believe that literacy is a fundamental right of everyone, and we as a society are failing,” Stephens said. “We are losing this battle. Not only are we losing this battle, but it’s getting increasingly worse.”

So he is helping to train volunteer tutors to teach adult learners as part of the college’s adult volunteer literacy tutor training certification program.

After 12 hours of instruction, the tutors work one-on-one with adult learners, usually once a week, for an hour or 90 minutes at sites near their homes, such as public libraries and the college’s South Holland and Oak Forest campuses. The program is possible because of a grant from the Illinois State Library.

“I just come in doing cartwheels and try to get all learners and all tutors excited about what