10%

Ten percent. While this percentage may be a decent discount when shopping or a signal that your phone battery is dangerously low, it represents so much more at the Literacy Together.

Ten percent of adults in Buncombe County read, write, or spell below a basic skills level. This means they may struggle even knowing the letters of the alphabet and the sounds that they make. Adults with low literacy skills are unable to navigate the language-based world around them, a community full of menus, signs, handwritten notes, school report cards, and prescription labels.

Ten percent (or more) is what Literacy Together stands to lose in federal funding in the 2018/19 fiscal year due to sweeping changes in the North Carolina funding allocation formula. Although we have joined together with other nonprofit literacy councils across the state to advocate for our programs in Raleigh over the past two years, we were only able to mitigate and delay the change’s negative fiscal impact to our programs.

If this was not available to me,  I actually wouldn’t have been given the opportunity to read.”  – Molly, Adult Literacy student

Please make a spring donation and join us in giving our neighbors the opportunity to learn.