Our Projects:
HELP SAVE PROJECT READ KY
Help keep the doors open and lights on for adult literacy in Madison County, Kentucky with our crowdfunded Indiegogo campaign
This campaign has expired.
Thanks to everyone who contributed!
Introduction
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The paragraph below, mostly incomprehensible to us, is how the world might look to someone unable to read:
Retpoanig tuo of Aoisdnm Ocuytn, Tenkucky, Jotrcpe Aerd si a onn-itropf oioiarngztan ciedaetdd ot virponidg tipru9isontope rfo dtlaus to evimrpo thrie draiegn dan/or sipakgne slskil. Ew reevs nyaone owh is at laest 16 yaser dlo and is tno lnoreled ni a oafrml lrca6ososm rpargmo.
Did you catch all that? Need us to repeat? It’s a world of misunderstandings, confusion, and chaos.
Imagine not being able to read grocery labels. Medications. Street signs. Menus. Bills. Even job applications. Hard to fathom, and yet this is the reality for 14 percent of working-age Kentuckians.
This is exactly what those of us at Project Read spend our days striving to fight and ultimately fix. Improving adult literacy in central Kentucky, one student at a time.
Who We Are
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We are Project Read and our goal is to improve adult literacy in Madison County, Kentucky. This year, we celebrate our 30th anniversary of teaching adults to read and/or improve their reading levels, free of charge. In addition, we offer tutoring to improve English-speaking skills for those for whom English is not their first language. Project Read is the only significant organization in Madison County to provide these individualized services to adult learners, many of whom are at the lowest literacy levels.
All of our tutors are unpaid, trained volunteers who enjoy making a contribution to the community by donating their time and expertise. In addition to our dedicated Executive Director, our Governing Board is comprised of local educators, business people, and well-known members of the community, working for a worthy and vital cause.
How You Can Help
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Project Read is totally dependent on contributions. Our budget would probably be considered modest by most standards, but one of our main sources of funding, United Way of the Bluegrass, changed its focus this year to support only K through 12 educational programs. While many foundations provide grants that support K-12 literacy projects, few support adult literacy programs. Rather than see this as a major setback, we instead embrace this as a unique opportunity to reach out, show the world the good we're doing and hope to continue to do, and involve the community in ways we'd only dreamt of before. This is where we need your help.
Our goal this year is to obtain $15,000 to maintain our current programs and to meet increasing needs and numbers of students. The money raised will be used to keep our doors open and lights on—to buy books and materials as well as to pay the rent and utilities.
Our door is the only significant one open to adults in Madison County who want to improve their basic literacy skills. Your contribution will make a difference in someone's life—a small price for a great difference.
How We - And You - Make a Difference
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Recently two sisters in their 20s earned their GEDs. Now, for the first time in their lives, they have well paying jobs and are more engaged citizens of Madison County. One woman in her 40s who was told she would never learn to read is now at the fourth-grade level and is still improving. These are just a few of the success stories from Project Read. Project Read truly does make a difference in improving literacy in Kentucky.
Our local supporters and contributors are finding it difficult to keep up with the growing needs of Project Read. The population in Madison County is growing faster than Kentucky as a whole (3.2% vs. 1.3%), and Project Read needs to expand its vital literacy services to meet the growing demand. Currently, we serve only a small fraction of the 3,000 people who speak another language at home. And those who do not complete high school (about 30 percent) are finding us, one by one, asking for help.
Your contribution goes toward many things:
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Keeping the lights on and doors open by paying our rent and utilities
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Growing our client base and advertising our services
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Replacing out-of-date equipment, such as our aging copy machine
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Adding to and replenishing our collection of textbooks, dictionaries, and learning software programs
Conclusion
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Ensuring that all adults have the opportunity to become literate is good for everyone—you, me, and the person improving his/her skills. Higher levels of literacy help us be better employees and open up new job opportunities. Because literacy helps us stay informed, it makes us valuable as citizens of our communities. Literacy lowers unemployment and crime rates. Literacy makes life endlessly more enjoyable and ultimately opens the door to a whole new world. Help us continue to make this new world possible for the many eager individuals in central Kentucky by contributing today.