Our mission statement is:

• To focus attention on literacy.

• To provide instruction to individuals with limited literacy skills.

• To empower students to achieve their goals so that they may be contributing members of the community.

• Hire a Program Director that has a master's degree in education.
• Serve 300 students in calendar year 2012 (up from 260 students served) with our students achieving over 375 personal goals ranging anywhere from advancing a reading level, improving a job situation, obtaining a GED, obtaining citizenship, or helping their child with schoolwork.

• Market a Read to Babies/Toddler program in our county and have every parent of a newborn receive a new book
• Focus on expansion of services in north county (Wabasso, Sebastian and Fellsmere) with a goal of serving 75 students in calendar year 2012 (up from 25 students a year that we serve in that area).
• Increase our annual revenue to a minimum of $150,000
• Obtain 100 Friends of Literacy willing to commit to a minimum gift of $100 to Literacy Services every year for five years to help us meet our mission of improving adult literacy in our county.

2011 Board Members:

We always welcome prospective new Board members who are dedicated to our mission as well as committee members interested in fundraising (Love of Literacy luncheon, 5K Race/Walk, Tea Party direct mailing), PR/marketing, community events, and tutor training. Please call if you are interested!

Literacy Services of Indian River County, Inc. is a non-profit corporation that had its origins in 1971 when eight local community residents came together to assist adults who needed to improve their literacy skills. Our organization provides free, confidential and individualized literacy instruction to adults who request assistance in improving their reading, writing, or English skills. We tutor at the pace of the student and based on THEIR goals and not some bureaucratic defined goal. Besides one-to-one tutoring, we also provide tutoring in small group levels when requested by our students or when a church or employer requests that we initiate a program at their site. All students are encouraged to read to their children if they have kids. In addition, we provide family literacy events.

The organization focuses on phonics, an internationally proven method. In particular, the Laubach Method is one of our primary teaching methods. Other teaching materials, including the Challenger book series, LifePrints, Oxford Pictures Dictionaries, Reading Horizons, spelling, writing, grammar, and other related materials are utilized.

Tutor Volunteer Efforts

All tutors are volunteers. Prospective tutors attend a ½ day workshop to learn about our organization and tutoring techniques. After attending a workshop a tutor will then be matched with a student. Once matched, it is the tutor’s responsibility to contact the student and set up a time and meeting place convenient to the tutor and student. A tutoring session generally lasts 90 minutes and occurs primarily twice a week (some tutor students once a week). All tutoring takes place in a public facility such as a library, church, or worksite. The organization gladly accepts seasonal tutors and a number of our tutors are only in town several months of the year.

Funding