With an eye toward contemporary skill building to meet community centered economic needs, organizations such as Literacy Volunteers of America are increasingly pressured to examine new avenues in promoting employment readiness skills for the newly literate. These organizations and countless others have come to the realization that being prepared…

Fourteen Texas community literacy programs received Job Training Partnership Act funds to form local partnerships. The collaborations enabled them to provide comprehensive, coordinated services to educationally disadvantaged people. The enhanced visibility of the programs enabled them to obtain additional funding after the initial grants ended.…

A survey of 30 participants in the Botswana National Literacy Programme identified collaborating agencies, levels of collaboration and coordination, and cooperative activities. The Department of Nonformal Education was recognized as the appropriate coordinator of collaboration. Participation of nongovernmental organizations was essential. (SK)

Presents the Pennsylvania State Coalition for Adult Literacy as a model for understanding state and local literacy coalitions. Cites elements of success in coalition building: trust, a sense of mission, strong leadership, and clear identification of the target populations of each member agency. (SK)

Project Literacy U.S. (PLUS) combines national network television and radio broadcasts with community action, alerting the public to the urgency of the adult illiteracy problem and helping to mobilize efforts to deal with it in towns and cities across the United States. All 525 affiliate and member stations of the American Broadcasting Company…

Unions are natural providers of basic skills instruction. They are in daily workplace contact with their membership, are trusted to work on members' behalf, and speak the language of the worker. Unions are trying to address the needs of illiterate workers through collective bargaining arrangements in which employers contribute a percentage of…

Outlines briefly the activities of the Australian Council for Adult Literacy, which include conferences, seminars, lecture tours, publications, publicity campaigns, and political representation, and urges greater educator involvement in the council. (MM)

Profound changes in the structure of the workplace and in the nature of jobs now make reading, writing, and other communications skills vital to the performance of even entry-level jobs. However, massive numbers of present and future workers have only minimal or marginal proficiency in the basic skills. The problem will get worse as the labor pool…

Explores definitions of adult literacy. The shift toward a more learner-centered education makes literacy meaningful to teachers and learners mutually and can be achieved through joint planning of instruction so that students share responsibility for determining what is needed. New definitions of literacy bring new insights. (SLD)