Trends in Grassroots Adult Literacy Organizing

The organizations highlighted below are meant to showcase the variety that exists among grassroots adult literacy programs. They range between emerging literacy initiatives—such as that at Dog Ears Bookstore—and more highly-developed non-profits formed out of mergers between smaller organizations—such as Literacy Connects. Some serve very specific populations while other exist within organizations that have missions extending beyond literacy alone.

Though grassroots organizing in adult literacy does exist, it is minimal. Much funding for adult and family literacy is top-down in nature (ex. Head Start, Division of Adult Education and Literacy, LINCS Learner Center), as the U.S. government has a direct stake in this issue: literate adults support the economy and, thus, it is in the interest of the government to ensure that adults are literate at least at a basic level. The government has less of a stake, however, in the literacy of non-citizen populations. For this reason, much of the grassroots organizing in adult ed is done around specific ethnic or national populations.

Grassroots adult literacy organizations commonly partner with churches, community centers and libraries, both for the learning spaces and resources that these institutions provide, but also as a means to better gauge community need. Oftentimes, these institutions (particularly public libraries) are able to connect the organizations with government funds that allow them to grow. Their grassroots origins, however, usually allow them to stay grassroots in nature; the grants generally do not raise conflicts of interests and the organizations are still responding to and serving a specific need in their local community that has been voiced by community members themselves.

Though many adult literacy programs are part of larger, family literacy initiatives which do highlight the role of the whole family in a child’s academic success, there is little marketing from these programs surrounding the role of adult literacy specifically in improving student outcomes. This may be due to a number of factors, including budget constraints, specific goals within the programs or, in some cases, a lack of awareness of this effect.

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Grassroots vs. Astroturf: What Counts as a Grassroots Organization?

The listed grassroots organizations have grown out of conversations between community members who seek to address demonstrated community needs by harnessing their individual power as citizens. While some of the organizations chosen are and remain highly localized, others have grown—sometimes merging with other organizations or seeking outside funding sources. Despite growth, these organizations have remained loyal to their grassroots origins. For example, despite being “one of the largest non-profit refugee and immigrant service providers in the Puget Sound area,” the Refugee Women’s Alliance, founded in 1985 by a small group of successfully-settled women refugees, continues to hire a staff composed primarily of refugees and immigrants and serves only local communities (Refugee Women’s Alliance). I have been mindful to exclude organizations that began as grassroots but have since became astroturf. According to Joanne Barkan (2012), in an article for Dissent Magazine, “astroturfing is political activity designed to appear unsolicited, autonomous, and community-rooted without actually being so.”

References:

Barkan, J. (2012, Spring). Hired Guns on Astroturf: How to Buy and Sell School Reform. Retrieved May 15, 2017, from https://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/hired-guns-on-astroturfhow-to-buy-and-sell-school-reform

Refugee Women’s Alliance. (n.d.). Mission and History. Retrieved May 15, 2017, from https://www.rewa.org/about-rewa/history-and-mission/