LITERACY VOLUNTEERS OF GREATER HARTFORD

The mission of Literacy Volunteers of Greater Hartford is to create a community of fully literate adults through student-centered instruction that catalyzes career readiness and advancement.

Nationally recognized by the Library of Congress with a Best Practices Literacy Award, our program is unique in the population it serves – very low and low literate adults - and in the way we provide services - through small group, slow-paced, volunteer-led instruction. This small group approach works well with students who cannot learn in the larger, faster paced classes offered at other public and non-profit agencies. Unlike some volunteer-based programs, our classes follow a recognized curriculum that is in alignment with Hartford Adult Education; student progress is regularly evaluated using standardized testing, formative and summative methods. Students benefit from a learning environment enriched with technology. Classes are offered both in person and online to accommodate diverse learning styles, mitigate geographic, transportation, child care and scheduling barriers to in person attendance, and of course, to sustain education through global health crises.

Our volunteers are rigorously trained before placement, regularly observed and evaluated, and must participate in ongoing training throughout their tenure with us. They are trained to teach both in person and online.

These factors combine to provide a highly professional program, embedded with significant accountability measures.

LVGH is known for its cutting edge, student-centered, technology-enriched curriculum that successfully meets the needs of low literate adults. As a volunteer-based program, committed to best practices in adult education and volunteer management, LVGH has provided this community with quality, cost-effective adult literacy services since 1972. At the same time, LVGH provides the community with enriching opportunities for volunteerism that build bridges of understanding between segments of the community that would not otherwise engage with each other. LVGH's commitment to collaborating with partners who can enrich and extend services to our students not only enables us to serve students more holistically, but utilizes the many community resources already available, rather than duplicating them. Professional staffing is in place to develop and nurture the partnerships, educational programming and volunteer engagement to support and sustain the program. The Board of Directors provides strong governance and fundraising leadership. As a volunteer-based organization, with expertise in volunteer recruitment, development and management, LVGH is able to deliver quality programming at the very reasonable cost of approximately $1,000/student/year. Board and staff are strategic and purposeful in the agency's financial planning and fundraising efforts. Combined, these factors ensure the sustainability of the agency and its programs. LVGH also has the internal fiscal controls and systems in place to ensure funding is allocated appropriately.

Enrollment at LVGH has increased over the past five years despite declining enrollment in adult education across the state. We credit this to our reputation for providing quality programming in a welcoming, supportive environment. Although the pandemic curbed enrollment growth this past year, all programs were sustained throughout the crisis, with services expanded to include virus and vaccine-related health literacy, assistance making and accessing vaccination appointments. With the rise in vaccination rates in Connecticut, we expect to see enrollment build again in 2021-2022.

The success of the Career Pathways program has perhaps been our biggest program achievement in recent years. This program has enabled our students to find life-changing employment, while having a significant impact on our employer partners' capacity to attract and retain quality employees. During the pandemic, the food services job training program not only continued throughout as a take-out service, but became a significant food security resource to the community, tripling the number of meals produced and served.

Financially, the organization remains strong, despite state and city budget cuts, and the ongoing uncertainty in the funding environment. Anticipating these challenges, the Board and staff have focused heavily on fundraising efforts, successfully raising record dollars last year. In addition, both Board and staff engaged in intensive fundraising training, in preparation for launching a major donor and planned giving initiative in the coming year. Unlike many non-profits who were forced to close either temporarily or permanently, Literacy Volunteers of Greater Hartford was able to sustain programming and remains financially healthy post-pandemic.

An undesignated $1.0 million bequest enabled the Board to establish the Literacy Volunteers Endowment Fund at the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving that not only provides income, but inspires additional giving, further securing the agency's future and its capacity to grow and adapt to changing community needs.