Library and Ozarks Literacy Council Team Wins Milestone Prize in Adult Literacy XPRIZE Communities Competition
April 1, 2019 — XPRIZE, in partnership with the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy and the Dollar General Literacy Foundation, Monday in Los Angeles announced finalist teams, including recipients of its milestone prizes, in its $1 million Adult Literacy XPRIZE Communities Competition.
“Lit 417,” the Springfield-Greene County Library District and the Ozarks Literacy Council team, was among 24 teams nationwide that will split the $500,000 milestone awards. They were selected for submitting the most innovative, feasible and scalable plans to promote a free, mobile app that makes it easy for adults to learn to read in private, at their own pace, on their own schedule.
Lit 417 will make available to learners a mobile app that was developed by one of four of the finalist teams in the Adult Literacy XPRIZE. Each app demonstrated literacy gains in participating learners who took a pre- and post-test in a 12-month field test in 2018.
The Lit 417 team will use its share of the milestone award in the coming weeks to create materials to engage adults wishing to learn to read or improve their reading skills; show them how to download and use a free mobile app to learn; and partner with community groups to engage adult learners to use the app. In Phase 2 of the Adult Literacy XPrize Communities Competition, a $500,000 prize purse will be awarded in fall 2019 for teams that go on to recruit the most adult learners to download and use the apps through August 31.
With research showing that 77 percent of Americans now own a smartphone, the competition aims to dramatically change the way the U.S. meets the needs of the 36 million adults with low literacy skills, by tackling the largest obstacles to achieving basic literacy – access, retention and scale.
The Communities Competition continues the momentum of the $7M Barbara Bush Foundation Adult Literacy XPRIZE presented by the Dollar General Literacy Foundation, which recently culminated with the announcement of two grand prize winners.
“Low literacy is a silent crisis in this country—one that needs more attention, more voices, more resources and more ideas. We know that lack of opportunity, not lack of motivation, is what most often prevents adults from improving their literacy skills. That’s why we’re leveraging the power of technology to reach adult learners where they are – giving them more opportunities to learn where they live, work, pray and play,” said British A. Robinson, president and CEO of the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy. “The Communities Competition is a critical step in our ongoing efforts to improve outcomes by broadening the reach and deepening the impact of adult literacy learning resources.”
“Meeting individuals where they are, when they are ready to learn is powerful,” said Denine Torr of the Dollar General Literacy Foundation. “The impetus of the Adult Literacy XPRIZE was to reach potential students who, for a variety of reasons, cannot attend classes at a typical brick and mortar location and to empower teachers to expand their capacity to serve. The Communities Competition allows us to provide free apps, which have proven results, to adults in rural communities to metropolitan centers across the country. Access to these apps place the power of learning at students’ fingertips at times when it is convenient for them. That’s exciting!”
“The Communities Competition is a one-of-a-kind effort to scale the impact of the Adult Literacy XPRIZE and transform lives through literacy,” said Shlomy Kattan, executive director of the Adult Literacy XPRIZE. “The passion, dedication and thoughtfulness of these competing communities is critical to reaching learners from diverse geographies and backgrounds. We have an array of teams, from educational institutions, to nonprofits, NGOs, government agencies, corporations, and individuals who are all critical to our goal of empowering adult learners to take learning in their own hands.”
For more information about the teams and the Communities Competition, visit adultliteracy.xprize.org and communities.xprize.org.
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About XPRIZE
XPRIZE, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, is the global leader in designing and implementing innovative competition models to solve the world’s grandest challenges. Active competitions include the Lunar XPRIZE, the $20M NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE, the $15M Global Learning XPRIZE, the $10M ANA Avatar XPRIZE, the $7M Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE, and the $5M IBM Watson AI XPRIZE. For more information, visit xprize.org.