Literacy Action Receives $15,000 Grant from the Dollar General Literacy Foundation to Support Adult Literacy
This week, the Dollar General Literacy Foundation awarded Literacy Action of Central Arkansas a $15,000 grant to support adult literacy. This local grant award is part of more than $7.5 million in grants awarded to nearly 900 schools, nonprofits and organizations across the 44 states that Dollar General serves.
“Literacy Action is thrilled to have been chosen for the Dollar General Foundation grant this year!” said Sara Drew, Literacy Action’s Executive Director. “This grant will go a long way toward funding even more of our low literate adults and families in central Arkansas.” Funding from Dollar General will be used to train tutors, teach students, and end the cycle of illiteracy in Arkansas.
“Dollar General is excited to provide these organizations with funding to support literacy and education throughout the 44 states we serve,” said Todd Vasos, Dollar General’s CEO. “Providing these grants and supporting the communities we call home reflects our mission of Serving Others and it’s rewarding to see the impact these funds have.”
The Dollar General Literacy Foundation is proud to support initiatives that help others improve their lives through literacy and education. Since its inception in 1993, the Dollar General Literacy Foundation has awarded more than $135 million in grants to nonprofit organizations, helping more than 8.6 million individuals take their first steps toward literacy or continued education.
About Literacy Action of Central Arkansas
Approximately 145,000 adults (10%) in central Arkansas struggle with basic reading, writing, and math skills. These individuals have difficulty filling out a job application, understanding a prescription label, or reading a bedtime story to their children. Adult literacy is a factor in almost every socioeconomic issue, including workforce development, health care, parenting, and poverty. To address these issues effectively, we must invest in educating adults with low literacy.
Literacy Action has worked hard since 1986 to teach literacy skills to struggling readers in the central Arkansas area. We have offices in Little Rock and Conway, but serve students from a seven-county area: Pulaski, Faulkner, Jefferson, Grant, Lonoke, Perry, and Saline. In the last 12 months, Literacy Action served over 600 adult students delivering over 11,000 hours of individualized instruction. Learning to read or speak English enables our students to get family-supporting jobs, have better access to health information and teach their children the value of literacy. We believe in acknowledging and advocating for the important role adults play in fostering their children’s basic literacy skills and attitudes toward learning. Literacy Action provides a crucial service that benefits the entire community and helps break the cycle of intergenerational illiteracy and poverty. All services are free of charge.
Literacy Action uses on a one-on-one tutoring model for Adult Basic Literacy (ABL) instruction and a group conversation model for English as a Second Language (ESL) instruction to improve adult literacy levels. In the past two years we have partnered with over 20 Local Community Partner Organizations (LCPOs) to reach even more adults and families in our area that need literacy services.
About the Dollar General Literacy Foundation
The Dollar General Literacy Foundation is proud to support initiatives that help others improve their lives through literacy and education as part of the company’s mission of Serving Others for nearly 25 years. Since its inception in 1993, the Dollar General Literacy Foundation has awarded more than $135 million in grants to nonprofit organizations, helping more than 8.6 million individuals take their first steps toward literacy or continued education. For more information about the Dollar General Literacy Foundation and its grant programs, visit www.dgliteracy.org.
About Dollar General Corporation
Dollar General Corporation has been delivering value to shoppers for over 75 years through its mission of Serving Others. Dollar General helps shoppers Save time. Save money. Every day!® by offering products that are frequently used and replenished, such as food, snacks, health and beauty aids, cleaning supplies, basic apparel, housewares and seasonal items at low everyday prices in convenient neighborhood locations. With 13,429 stores in 44 states as of March 3, 2017, Dollar General is among the largest discount retailers in the United States. In addition to high quality private brands, Dollar General sells products from America’s most-trusted brands such as Procter & Gamble, Kimberly-Clark, Unilever, Kellogg’s, General Mills, Nabisco, Hanes, PepsiCo and Coca-Cola.