I appear before you to encourage the committee to strengthen its investment in family literacy because family literacy works. Family literacy results in concrete returns for children, for adults, for families, for communities and for taxpayers. During my 30-year career in education, I have worked at the local, state and federal levels to help establish a support system for literacy programs that promotes intergenerational learning as an effective means to break the cycle of poverty and undereducation. Family literacy is an important program because it provides self-sufficiency for multiple generations simultaneously. When parents and children work together, the parents have the opportunities to gain the skills to fulfill their roles as parents, workers and citizens.
Children gain academic readiness and reading skills to be successful learners in our schools.
The National Center for Family Literacy is now in its eleventh year of guiding the practice of family literacy, through improvements in teaching techniques, research-related projects and program development, to meet the demands of social and economic change. To date, NCFL has conducted family literacy trainings in all 50 states, as well as Washington, DC, and has provided training or technical assistance to approximately 20,000 practitioners. Over the course of the past decade, NCFL has worked with administrators in Head Start, Title I, Even Start, Adult Education, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and has collaborated with numerous national nonprofit organizations and corporate partners. One of the keys to family literacy's success has been its flexibility and adaptability. Recent initiatives have focused on family literacy as a strategy to support families transitioning from welfare to work, forging local business collaboratives to sustain community education programs.