Council seeks to improve community through literacy

Editor’s note: This is the 10th and final story in a 10-part series looking at the agencies that were awarded grant funds by the SHARE Foundation as the first partners in the new Violence Intervention Plan. Each installment, which ran on Wednesdays and Sundays through the end of March, looked at a different agency, what was funded by the grant and how it will help address crime and violence in the community.

Countless statistics, surveys and studies have proven a direct correlation between low literacy skills and mass incarceration, and the Literacy Council of Union County plays a vital role in countering those stats in South Arkansas.

With an acute understanding of how a literate, highly skilled populace helps to strengthen the community, the SHARE Foundation made sure to include the Literacy Council in its Violence Intervention Plan for 2018.

In January, SHARE donated $10,000 for the council to continue and enhance its adult education program, with an emphasis on literacy.

The Council was one of 10 nonprofit groups that were awarded grant money to address a particular component of the overall plan to address crime and violence in El Dorado.

At the time, Michael Donnella, a member of the SHARE board, cited a grim fact that says low-skilled adults are eight times as likely to be incarcerated.

Julia Amis, director of El Dorado Connections — which offers the adult literacy program —, pointed to other distressing statistics:

• According to Literacy Inc., two-thirds of U.S. students who cannot read proficiently by the end of the fourth grade will end up in jail or on welfare. Nearly 85 percent of juveniles who face trial in the juvenile court system are functionally illiterate.

• ProLiteracy U.S. adult literacy facts state that 75 percent of state prison inmates did not complete high school or can be classified as low literate.

ProLiteracy also says that 72 percent of children whose parents have low literacy levels have a chance of being at the lowest reading levels themselves. Additionally, these children are more likely to get poor grades, display behavioral problems, have high absentee rates, repeat grades or drop out of school.

• U.S. penal institution records show that inmates have a 16 percent chance of returning to prison if they receive literacy help, as opposed to 70 percent who receive no help. Illiteracy and crime are closely related.

• The U.S. Department of Justice states, “The link between academic failure and delinquency, violence, and crime is welded to reading failure.”

Locally, 26 percent of adults over the age of 18 in

Union County do not have a high school diploma and 6 percent of those have an education below the ninth grade, per the American FactFinder, who compiled the information from the 2010 U.S Census.

Amis explained that the mission of the Literacy Council is to reverse those trends by providing free instruction, through trained volunteers, for Union County citizens who lack the basic skills for reading, writing, computer technology and English as a second language.

Additionally, the program offers classes on job interviewing and resume-writing and, when possible, assists with completing employment applications.

“Currently, there are 19 active adult learners at the Literacy Council who meet weekly with a tutor for oneon-one tutoring,” Amis said.

Services provided by the Council can profoundly affect participants and have an lasting impact on their ability to successfully function in the community, she noted.

For instance, adults with improved literacy skills supply the community with an educated workforce, which in turn, boosts the economy.

Local industries are partnering with several entities, including the El DoradoUnion County Chamber of Commerce and South Arkansas Community College, to help improve the talent pool of the area’s workforce by bettering education and training levels and polishing up on soft skills.

At the center of those efforts is the Literacy Council.

For anyone who is looking to better their basic education and literacy skills, and thus, employment opportunities, Amis said it is as easy as calling 870-864-7081 for more information or stopping by 824 Camp St. to fill out a student application and complete an interview and orientation.

“A volunteer will then be matched with the student and the first tutoring schedule scheduled,” she said.

There are other ways to get involved with the Literacy Council. Amis stressed there is a “critical need” for volunteers.

Representatives of the adult education program have said that space for participants is often limited to the number of volunteer tutors.

Tutors must be able to commit a minimum of one hour per week to an adult learner.

“A volunteer does not need a teaching degree or a background in education. They just need a desire to help someone better themselves and a heart to encourage,” Amis said, adding that training is provided.