J. Marion Sims | Press Release

The J. Marion Sims Foundation has committed more than $4 million to community organizations to attack unacceptably high illiteracy levels in Lancaster County, Fort Lawn and Great Falls. We're often asked why a foundation that focuses primarily on health and wellness has decided to commit a significant portion of its resources to an area that would seem, at best, to have a loose connection to its mission. It's helpful to remind ourselves of why the foundation sees literacy as being of such importance.

High rates of functional illiteracy, that may well run in excess of 50% statewide and even higher in Lancaster and Chester counties, affect a number of issues of concern. Parenting, education, teen pregnancy, health care costs, unhealthy lifestyle choices, alcohol and other drug abuse, and domestic violence, to name only a few, are issues negatively influenced when people have limited vision, limited skills, limited hope.

The premise of the initiative, then, is simple: A more literate population, we believe, ultimately will be a healthier population. And that directly ties to our mission.

In today's world, being literate means possessing the ability to read, write and speak English proficiently, to compute and solve problems, and to use technology in order to become a lifelong learner and to be effective in the family, in the workplace and in the community.

In the fall of 2002, the foundation announced grants of $2.2 million in seed money to five organizations to begin literacy programming, thus expanding on work already being done in the community. These programs differ greatly from one another in focus, in scope, and in target audiences. Each is organized independently of the others, but all work with various community partners and often with one another.

These organizations have chosen to engage in tough work. Roughly 18 months ago, they began their work individually and collectively. Late in 2003 Foundation staff members spent time gathering information on the programs' first year of operation and shared it with the foundation's board of trustees. Here is some of what we saw:

In spite of having to spend the first few months meeting the numerous challenges of start-up, these five programs delivered direct literacy services in the areas of citizenship, family, health, and workplace literacy to nearly 1,100 people. Hundreds more received indirect services.
As a result of these services, health care clients are receiving re-oriented materials making it easier for them to understand basic health care information. Medical and health care staffs are improving their skills in communicating materials to low literate consumers, and are conducting health literacy assessments on new clients to determine the proper levels for communication. USC Medical School students are returning to campus from field rotations and instructing their classmates in health literacy, creating a ripple effect within the curriculum. Health literacy focus group members are meeting monthly to explore ways of better managing their health care and requesting direct literacy instruction.
Parents are reading more to children, attending more school activities and conferences, interacting more with teachers, setting and beginning to attain their own personal literacy goals. Workers are learning basic, intermediate, and advanced computer skills, often on site in their businesses or industries.
Young adults, many of whom have been in trouble, are learning construction skills while filling gaps in reading and mathematics; some are already finding employment. They're performing community service, repairing and rehabilitating properties, participating positively in the public process by securing funds to help from governmental sources, and volunteering on their own time.
These programs are gaining notice - they're being asked to spread the word about their work in state, regional, and national settings.

Most gratifying to us have been the passion, energy and commitment the people who serve in these programs bring to their work, and the partnerships that have formed across various community lines and sectors between no fewer than 46 different partners, some of which would seem unlikely. We congratulate the initial group of programs, and we awarded grants to four more in 2003. We have challenged them to write their own stories with the same energy, passion and commitment that our initial group has shown.

What is the foundation learning from the work of these organizations? That there's a long way to go. That there are no easy answers, no quick fixes, no "one-size fits all" approach to literacy. That change takes time. And that literacy improvement doesn't take place in isolation from other factors in an adult's life - a holistic approach that addresses many life issues, meeting people where they are, often is necessary.

To borrow from a headline in a much appreciated Lancaster News editorial earlier this year, we are reminded constantly that literacy is empowerment. Listen to one participant from the Southside Family Literacy Program:

"When I first started, I felt so bad about myself and my life. I had no motivation to do better because I did not know where to begin. But after being in this program for the last eight months, I feel like I am in control of my life and my family. I feel like I can learn things I never knew I could, and be a mother that my daughter will be proud of."

Our hope, our dream, our vision is for Lancaster County, Fort Lawn and Great Falls to embrace literacy as a community priority, to multiply the number of stories such as this one. There is such a long way to go. But the journey is worth it. And there's room for many more people on the way.