Literacy Council of HSC needs your help
Malvern Area Kiwanis Club invited Vicki McNees, director of The Literacy Council of Hot Spring County, to speak at their monthly meeting, which fell this month on March 9 and took place that afternoon at the ASU Three Rivers CAST building on MLK Blvd.
Mcnees came to speak with Kiwanis members about the various adult learning services provided free of charge to HSC residents in need through the community-based literacy program. Their vital services are made possible through donations from local organizations and individuals, as well as their partnership with the Arkansas Learning Alliance, the state’s leading adult learning advocacy group that currently supports literacy councils in 39 of the state’s 75 counties.
According to the ALA, approximately one in seven adult Arkansans reads below a fifth-grade level, and the U.S. Dept. of Education reports that 22 percent of HSC adults have difficulty with basic reading and math skills that are necessary to functioning successfully through everyday life. A personal deficiency in these skills not only impacts an adult’s daily life, it also impacts their children and community. As stated by the ALA, “Children of parents with low skills have a 72% chance of being at the lowest reading levels themselves… your neighbor may not be able to read her prescription bottle. Your child’s best friend may never hear bedtime stories. An employee of yours may not understand the safety warnings on his work equipment.”
Mcnees and volunteers associated with LCHSC hope to help their community by being staunch advocates for funding, undergoing extensive training, and offering personal tutoring and support services to HSC residents. Tutoring and services offered at the LCHSC through the READ Program improve real-world skills such as English as a Second Language (ESL), math reading, and financial literacy.
“Our goal is two-fold: to raise our learners’ reading ability to a point that allows them to function in society (approximately a 5th grade level) and to break the multi-generational cycle of illiteracy,” according to the LCHSC.