Building literacy skills with United Way help

Illiteracy impacts every part of a person’s life and has a detrimental effect on the healthcare industry, the workforce and the community’s crime rate. With the help of the Rowan County United Way, the Rowan County Literacy Council’s objective is to ensure that adults with low basic skills are able to strengthen their educational levels in order to take advantage of emerging economic opportunities.

In Rowan County, approximately 18 percent of adults do not have a high school diploma or GED. In addition, more than 13,000 Rowan County residents speak a language other than English, which severely limits their employment prospects and, for those that are parents, puts their children at a higher risk of falling behind their peers.

Each dollar that United Way allocates to the Literacy Council goes towards our program operations, such as purchasing books and learning supplies, hosting workshops to train new and existing tutors and keeping our equipment and technology up to date so that we in turn can help our students learn and understand the technology required in today’s workforce.

Without the support of United Way, the Literacy Council would not be able to continue to offer quality programs that have assisted students in achieving new academic goals such as obtaining a high school diploma or GED, passing the driver’s license test, becoming a U.S. citizen, continuing onto college, reading a book to their children for the first time, or moving onto a better paying job to support their family.

The Literacy Council is one of 16 agencies that receive funding from United Way, and each agency is vitally important to our community. Every Rowan County citizen that contributes to United Way is making a profound, positive impact in so many different ways. Without your support, many of our local nonprofits would be unable to keep the lights on. Thank you for continuing to boost our community.

— K.C. Scott

Salisbury

The writer is director of the Rowan County Literacy Council.

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I want to thank my neighbor, whoever he or she is, who tosses the Post up on my porch from time to time.  This is a great help and I really appreciate it. You know who you are and I thank you!

—  Jack Burke

Salisbury