In The News
Part of Literacy Partners mission is to communicate the impact of illiteracy on people’s lives. It is important for all of us to realize that illiteracy is a critical issue and that we can actually help someone obtain crucial skills that will serve them the rest of their lives.
Here is some recent press coverage about Literacy Partners work.
Low Literacy Can Be Hazardous To Your Health
Op-Ed by Susan A. McLean
November 7, 2007 issue of The Queens Gazette
Imagine sitting on the examining table as your doctor explains, in detail, your diagnosis, the treatment course, your prescribed medication regimen, the lifestyle changes you now face ahead and numerous options to evaluate in order to make a decision about surgical treatment. He hands you pages and pages of documents and says, “Don’t worry about remembering all this stuff…it’s all written down here for you.”
Such a doctor’s visit would be frustrating and confusing for most people. Now imagine facing all this being unable to read or being unable to grasp even basic medical terminology.
The health of 90 million Americans is at risk due to difficulties understanding and evaluating medical information. In other words, low literacy can be hazardous to your health - fatal, even. In fact, the issue of low literacy crushes our already strained healthcare system with an additional $73 billion in costs, with annual healthcare costs for low-literacy patients quadrupling those of their literate counterparts.
The link between literacy and health is shocking- and obvious. According to the American Medical Association, literacy is a better predictor of health status than age, income, education level, employment status and race or ethnicity. Furthermore, a recent study revealed a relationship between low health literacy skills and life expectancy.
Better Literacy Opens Book To a Whole New World of Writing
Reporting in July 18, 2007 issue of The Villager
At the sound of his name, Omar Amparo, 24, rose to his feet and walked to the podium, his heart pounding. Daring a glimpse at the crowd gathered at Our Lady of Pompei Church for the annual Literacy Partners Student and Volunteer Recognition Celebration, he saw hundreds of unfamiliar faces staring back at him expectantly.
For a moment, he was convinced that he couldn’t do it, that the words of his essay, each carefully, painstakingly chosen would stick in his throat.
Then, he lifted up the piece of paper he’d brought with him to the front of the stage, took a breath and began to read.
Never Too Late to Learn To Read
Reporting in July 6, 2007 issue of The West Side Spirit
Adult literacy students recently read aloud personal essays, poems and stories showcasing their newly acquired skills at the annual Literacy Partners Student and Volunteer Recognition Celebration. The event, which took place at Our Lady of Pompeii Church in downtown Manhattan, included 25-year-old Mohoko Saito of Midtown West. She was accompanied by family, friends and supporters, as well as tutors and staff.
Saito received a certificate acknowledging her accomplishments after she read her original essay “The Meaning of Learning English.” The piece employed Saito’s personal experiences to convey the message that it is never too late to learn to read.
“More than one million New York City adults - or one out of every three adults - are unable to read beyond the fifth grade level,” said Susan McLean, executive director of Literacy Partners. “It is our mission to guide these adults and enable them to improve their quality of life.”
Read & Right
by Liz Smith, May 2007 issue of Gotham
It’s time New Yorkers all go the same page and supported Literacy Partners!
Sometimes an important event happens in your life without your being aware of it. I was working on WNBC’s Live at Five 25 years ago when my TV mate Carol Jenkins asked me to help her get Lena Horne for a Literacy Volunteers (LV) fundraiser. (I’d bragged about knowing Horne really well.)
Of course she turned down the request and I felt embarrassed in front of the dedicated Ms. Jenkins, so I feigned interest in the charity and went, reluctantly, with her to a meeting. There, a great-looking Madison Avenue-tye guy stood up and said he’d somehow gotten out of high school without knowing how to read or write. He’d had his wife read newspapers to him. He was faking it through business and life. Then he went to LV, and now he was reading Edward Gibbon’s The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. His life had totally changed.
