Merger Announced in the Literacy Capital of America

ProLiteracy Worldwide
Monday, 21 May 2001

SYRACUSE, NEW YORK, May 21, 2001—Laubach Literacy International (LLI) and Literacy Volunteers of America, Inc. (LVA), two of the oldest and largest volunteer literacy organizations in the world, today announced their intention to merge. The boards of each organization have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that combines the current operations of LLI and LVA and locates the new literacy organization at Laubach Literacy's headquarters at 1320 Jamesville Avenue in Syracuse, NY. The organization resulting from the merger will be named later this year and will commence operations on or about January 1, 2002.

"This merger will bring incalculable benefits to the programs and people we serve—both domestically and internationally," says Robert Wedgeworth, President of LLI. "Most important, it will allow us to speak with one voice on behalf of adults as parents at a time when public policy is grappling with the enormous challenge of educating America's children." Marsha L. Tait, President of LVA, agrees: "Joining forces makes great sense for both organizations. Combined, we will have the opportunity to ensure that every adult student who seeks our services will receive the best possible quality of instruction, both here and abroad."

The U.S. Department of Education estimates that between 40 and 44 million adults in the U.S. function at the lowest level of literacy skill. LLI and LVA are nonprofit educational organizations, managed by professionals, who support local literacy services through national networks of approximately 160,000 volunteers and 1,450 local, state, and regional literacy providers in the United States. LLI and LVA share the mission of assisting adults to acquire the listening, speaking, reading, writing, mathematics, and technology skills they need to be effective in their roles as parents, community members, and in the workplace.

Founded in 1955 by literacy pioneer Dr. Frank C. Laubach, LLI has 1,100 member programs throughout the United States and 70 partner programs in 39 developing countries in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America. Its publishing division, New Readers Press, produces and distributes 500 titles of U.S. adult educational materials to 46,000 literacy organizations, schools, libraries, and other institutions across the country.

LVA was founded by Ruth Colvin in Syracuse, New York, in 1962. Mrs. Colvin worked with professional reading consultants to develop tutor training that equipped volunteers to tutor adults and teens using curricula defined in accordance with the individual needs and goals of their students. As the effectiveness of the program became widely recognized, literacy programs across the country adopted LVA's student-centered philosophy. Today, LVA delivers local literacy services through a national network of more than 350 volunteer literacy programs serving more than 80,000 adult literacy students and their families yearly.

For more information, or to contact ProLiteracy Worldwide, see their website at: www.proliteracy.org