Literacy and Volunteers - a Crucial part of our world

We often ask ourselves how we can promote economic growth, community involvement, and promote aspects of higher education. Increasing literacy can help in all of these areas and is also crucial to all around personal growth.  Literacy and Volunteers can go hand in hand.
How can we promote literacy?
  1. Read with your children. By reading with your child, you lay the stepping stones for their reading and listening skills. A good method to use is reading one page and then having your child read the other page until you finish the book. Helping them sound out words along the way is a great way to promote literary confidence.
  2. Volunteer at your local school by reading to students or helping them learn to read and use phonetics. When students see other people besides their teacher and guardians reading with them, they begin to think of it as something that is desirable to do outside of their home and classroom.  Pairing goals relating to literacy and volunteers can have a huge impact on students.
  3. Teach children that reading is cool!  Many children may think that reading is a waste of time based on what other students may say or how some aspects in media display children that are reading as being not cool. In reality, children need to learn that reading helps them grow in more subjects than just English. It can help them grow in many areas when they learn about subjects such history and science. Reading also helps develop creativity.

How does literacy promote community growth?

  1. Literary involvement within the community opens up doors for intellectual conversations. With a literate community, problems are solved quicker, the community is more understanding of new laws and legislations, and educational programs are more quickly developed and implemented.
  2. Sharing is caring. With the mutual understanding literacy provides, the community is more likely to share thoughts and ideas to help improve the community as a whole.
  3. Obtain perspective. With so many different intellectual and literate minds, you are able to see many different points of view within certain topics. This gives members of the community a way to see not only what people are thinking, but why they may be thinking that way.

How does literacy promote economic growth?

  1. Literary skills help with your job search. Let’s face it, the more knowledge you have, the more likely you are to excel in the workforce. Employers look for individuals that have a clear understanding when reading, writing, and speaking. With these skills, they see you as an asset to help their company grow.
  2. Increasing technology calls for increased knowledge. With the world moving forward as fast as it is with technological development, employers need someone who is able to read and understand the new technological aspects of the economy.
  3. Employers love “situational chameleons.” Employees that can adapt to various situations using their prior knowledge and literacy skills  are more likely to be given advancement opportunities within the workplace.

And finally, how does literacy promote personal growth and higher education?

  1. Literacy skills promote higher rates of success with academics. The more you read, the more you learn. You’ll find that some of the things you read about in your textbooks are things you’ve already read in various texts. For example by reading a book such as the
    Scarlet Letter
    , you already have knowledge of a certain time period.
  2. Learn to grasp on to new challenges. As new challenges surface, those that have excellent literary skills are more likely to research and read about ways to overcome their current challenge.
  3. Literacy gives you a shot at being heard. The more you know, the more voice you will have in your community and workplace. People respect individuals that have a firm grasp on what is being asked or discussed with them.
  4. The more knowledge you have, the farther you’ll go. Colleges and universities look for those with the most academic and intellectual growth. Academic awards and club involvement that show activity and involvement in various areas are some of the most important aspects of a college application. Staff that look over the essay portion of your application can often tell when an applicant really knows their facts.