Library and Ozarks Literacy Council XPRIZE Project Seeks to Increase Adult Literacy
If you can read this, count yourself fortunate. More than 36 million adults in the nation lack basic English literacy, yet only 5 percent have access to educational services.
To bring it home, the Missouri Career Center, Ozarks Literacy Council and Missouri State University in 2016 sampled 200 individuals seeking jobs. From that sampling, 27 percent were below a sixth-grade reading level.
Low literacy impacts the well-being of individuals, families and communities. And when adults learn to read – here’s how one Ozarks Literacy Council client described it: “I am doing better than I ever have before. It’s like being born again.”
The Library and the Ozarks Literacy Council will soon tackle the problem of adult literacy in our communities by putting free learning tools in the hands of those who need them most, so learning can happen anytime, anywhere. The tools? A free mobile literacy app they can access on their Android phones.
It’s being made possible as we take part in the $1 million Adult Literacy XPRIZE Communities Competition. It’s a national competition that will challenge organizations, communities and individuals to recruit adults with low literacy skills to download and use the effective, convenient and private learning app.
XPRIZE, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, is the global leader in designing and implementing innovative competition models to solve the world’s grandest challenges. (For more information visit www.xprize.org.)
The Library and Ozarks Literacy Council were already named a $20,000 Milestone Award Winner in Phase 1 of the Communities Competition for our robust plan to put those free learning tools into the hands of adults who need it. We will share the prize to create a variety of materials for the adult learners. Winners of the Phase 2 award will be those who recruit the largest number of adult learners to download and consistently use the mobile learning apps.
Of course, we’ll be going all out on this effort soon with dozens of agencies to encourage use of the app, knowing that the true winners of this national Communities Competition will be the neighbors in our very own communities.
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