Literacy Action: An AHA service provider that improves lives

Of AHA’s many service providers, Literacy Action remains one of the most vital.

Literacy Action is where people who want to improve their reading and writing skills and get ahead in their lives can go for guidance. At its best it helps prepare people to take the General Educational Development. But it is also there for those who just want to hone these necessary skills.

“We work closely with them,” says Marvin Nesbitt, AHA’s Vice President of Human Development Services. “We refer many of our residents and have for some time now. It’s a basic literacy program, and they’re about to start administering our Good to Great literacy program, our intensive literacy program.”

The program is designed so that people sign up and go to it every day from 8 to 5, just like school. It’s deliberately intensive to get them from one literacy level to the next highest level. The length of time they are involved depends on each person’s goals as each person’s literacy level is different.

“It takes a while to get comfortable and to get ready for testing phase,” Nesbitt says. “We have participants who run the gamut of reading levels and interest. People have to express an interest in the program in order to become involved.”

Literacy Action Inc., which is located in downtown Atlanta, receives less than 20 percent of its funding from governmental agencies. AHA is one of them. The cost per student is about $2,000 with 27 part-time teachers that keep the program running.

At age 43, Literacy Action is the oldest and largest community-based adult literacy program in Georgia. It also provides life-skills training in the areas of computer training, health, finance, family, and civic engagement to AHA-assisted participants and serves 90 AHA-assisted participants at any given time throughout the year.

Literacy Action conducts afternoon classes at Atlanta Metropolitan College, evening classes at Atlanta Technical College, and offers a Learning Lab three times a week to assist students with homework. Volunteers assist teachers and support students.

Barney Simms, AHA’s Chief External Affairs Officer, serves on Literacy Action’s board.

The relationship between the two organizations is symbiotic. AHA recently held its fourth annual Senior Wellness & Resource Fair, which was dedicated to the well being of its senior residents during Healthy Older Americans Month. The fair was a success thanks to help from Literacy Action, one the fair’s sponsors.

For more information about Literacy Action, go to its website and learn more about this vital organization.