Allegheny County Literacy Council, Inc./Christian Literacy Associates

In response to this crisis, Allegheny County Literacy Council, Inc./Christian Literacy Associates is mobilizing the Christian community by building the 2ten Network. The 2ten Network is comprised of churches and community ministries who are trained to use and equipped with The Christian Literacy Series, enabling them to provide the basic reading assistance that their own community's children need. It is our vision to equip a minimum of one Christian church in every town within the United States with the training and materials to help an adult or child learn to read using The Christian Literacy Series. We also continue to offer free training and consultation services for parents and caregivers to meet the needs of their children.

Our strategy to accomplish this vision begins with word of mouth advertising. As a small nonprofit we have a minimal advertising budget. Therefore, we must gain exposure to alert churches, parents, caregivers, and other social service agencies to our existence and the unique way that we can help them and their constituents. We then partner with these churches and community groups to train and equip them to provide the basic reading instruction their community's children and adults need. Partnering with funding sources to provide sponsorships for those individuals who have extremely limited means is also an important part of the equation.

Our staff is uniquely qualified to provide free training and consultation to any organization in the United States that wishes to offer basic reading assistance to those in need. Our proprietary textbook set, The Christian Literacy Series, allows us to train anyone who can read well, desires to help someone in need, has patience, and is willing to use Christian-content materials to teach children and adults how to read. Most Christian churches in the United States would have at least two people who would fit that description. Fortunately, the advancements in technology have provided us with numerous opportunities to reach out to the nation effectively. We specialize in creating and testing programs that can be easily replicated. By developing training tools for distance applications such as training videos, or live online tutor training, we are able to mobilize parents, caregivers, and volunteers from churches and community ministries in multiple regions simultaneously.

This is an ongoing national level effort to mobilize the Christian community to fight illiteracy. Along with more than a dozen churches locally, we have equipped churches in New York, Arkansas, and California, along with ministries in Florida, Georgia, and Texas who are actively tutoring using The Christian Literacy Series. The 2ten Network continues to grow as we regularly receive requests from other organizations and churches across the Untied States.