Education

Center for Leveraging Literacy

The Jacksonville Urban League launches its first Center for Leveraging Literacy (CLL). The program is a college ready and workforce preparatory initiative for young adults ages 16-25 and is designed to improve the overall literacy levels and assist in high school diploma attainment of at-risk students. The program primarily works with two groups of individuals: High school drop outs who are interested in completing high school and attending college or vocational training and High School/GED certified individuals who need help raising literacy level in order to attend a post-secondary college or vocational program. Four groups of youth will benefit from CLL:

• Juvenile Offenders
• At-Risk High School Students
• High School Drop Outs
• Unemployed/Underemployed

Without raising the literacy, these targeted young adults will more than likely earn low-wages, resort to crime, abuse drugs/alcohol, and raise low-literate children. Members of our target audience are located in a variety of settings including: low-performing high-school, Job Corbs, low-skill/low-wage jobs and the Juvenile Justice system. Many of these young adults also utilize services provided by Family Support Services, Department of Children and Families, Head Start, Healthy Start, and others. Communication among participants requires the CLL to make direct contact with motivated, low-literate 16-25 year-olds in their environments-work, school, church, etc. It is also necessary for the CLL to cultivate relationships with other agencies that provide social services to these young adults to receive referrals in the CLL.

The Center For Leveraging Literacy continues to seek funding in order to meet all of its objectives for this comprehensive program.