UA Students Step Up to Fight Illiteracy – More than 700 Volunteers Recruited

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The University of Alabama student advocacy group Literacy is the Edge is continuing the campaign against illiteracy in West Alabama with some 700 volunteers recruited and more than 200 of them receiving training as tutors this semester.

In Alabama, one in four people are functionally illiterate, totaling more than 1 million residents, says Louise Crow, UA student and LITE president.

LITE recruited more than 700 volunteers during a campaign launched last semester to help fight functional illiteracy — the lack of basic reading, writing and math skills needed to function in everyday life – in West Alabama. Last month, UA held tutor training sessions where some 245 students received instruction to tutor children, adults or assist with ESL instruction in Tuscaloosa.

“Our LITE team took on the task of raising awareness of functional illiteracy and challenging UA students, faculty and staff to sign up to help their neighbors learn to read,” Crow said. “We launched the ONE campaign in November 2009 to emphasize that it only takes one hour a week of tutoring to change one life forever.”

There are currently 759 UA students who have volunteered to become reading tutors, speak out about functional illiteracy and assist with the Literacy Council of West Alabama. Crows says the LITE team set up information tables in the Ferguson Center, conducted more than 20 class and group presentations, launched a new Web site, and used social media and guerilla marketing tactics.

This is a wonderful response by our students to a compelling need in the community,” said Dr. Bruce Berger, LITE adviser and professor of advertising and public relations in the UA College of Communication & Information Sciences. “LITE’s campaign highlighted the power of one individual to make a positive difference in the life of another. These many new volunteers will help build bridges to better lives for others in West Alabama. We applaud their service and the great work of the LITE team.”

To get involved or to inquire about tutoring services, contact 205/348-7692, literacyistheedge@gmail.com or www.lite.ua.edu.

Literacy is the Edge is a student-led advocacy group at UA with the mission of increasing awareness of illiteracy and recruiting tutors to actively fight illiteracy in West Alabama.