ERIC Digest Number 145. Building on Existing Strengths To Increase Family Literacy. ERIC Digest Number 145. Unfortunately, many families living in poverty lack literacy skills, as defined by American mainstream culture. Family literacy programs around the country have been successful in breaking the cycle of intergenerational literacy deficiency, however.
Much information is available about program components effective in teaching literacy skills.
Less attention has been paid to the value of building on families' existing skills, diverse cultures and languages, and life experiences, although doing so has been shown to increase program efficacy. This digest, therefore, focuses on strategies for reaching families that reflect the strengths they already have. The Federal Even Start Family Literacy Program, authorized in 1988, is the catalyst for much of the family literacy activity nationally. It provides funds for local partnership programs to deliver literacy services to low-income families with at least one adult eligible for Adult Basic Education. Program participants are ethnically diverse, frequently urban and limited in English proficiency, and, increasingly, teenage parents and the very poor.