Each month, AAF-Knoxville features a local non-profit organization as part of its lunch meetings. For April, we're delighted to welcome Melissa Nance, Executive Director for Friends of Literacy.Since 1991 Friends of Literacy has been the voice of the illiterate.
Friends of Literacy is:
- Private (not government operated)
- Independent (not part of a school system)
- Not-for-Profit
- Local (Serving only Knox County)
- Governed by a volunteer board of local corporate and community leaders
- Is supported by members (individual and corporate donations)
- Supported by local, regional, state, and national foundations and granting agencies
We support programs that offer year-round daytime and evening adult education classes.
Our Goal: To provide funding and volunteers that support basic education and life-skill training to adult students, helping them to become better workers, parents, and citizens.
What is Literacy? "Literacy means an individual's ability to read, write, and speak English, and to compute and solve problems at levels of proficiency necessary to function on the job and in society, to achieve one's goals and develop one's knowledge and potential." - National Literacy Act 1991
Benefits of Literacy:
- Better job opportunities, increased earnings
- Educational advancement
- Decreases intergenerational cycle of poverty
- Raises workforce effectiveness
- Increases civic participation
To learn more, visit www.friendsofliteracy.org.
