Greetings from all of us at First Literacy!
We hope that this year has been filled with good things for you and your loved ones. No one can deny that 2021 has been hard; but there have been a lot of good things that have come from this year, too. We have had more time to think about what is most important to us. We have seen how generous people can be. And we have seen many people rise up and continue striving, despite many obstacles.
There was a lot of “thinking outside the box” in 2021. At the same time, we spent a lot of time inside little boxes, on Zoom! Yet we all managed to reach out of those boxes and figure out new ways to do things. A perfect example of that is our first ever virtual Corporate Spelling Bee. If you haven’t seen it, check out the highlight, it was a lot of fun!
The adult learners whom we serve often find themselves boxed in, lacking the education they need to improve their lives. They have been among those hardest hit in 2021, but they haven’t given up.
In 2021, when they needed us most, First Literacy was able to increase scholarships from $1,000 to $1,500 and award more scholarships than in any previous year; we reached more adult educators thanks to our professional development workshops all being virtual; and we provided more funding to Adult Basic Education and ESOL programs so that they could try new ways of teaching their students.
In our Annual Report, you will hear from those in our community who have supported our mission: a long-term donor who knows the value of our work, a scholar who is achieving her goals and serves as a great ambassador of First Literacy, a program that continues to think of new ways to teach adult learners, and an educator who has benefitted from our professional development workshops.
Thank you for joining us in our mission: to support innovation in adult literacy, to change lives.
Terry Witherell
Executive Director, First Literacy