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The following organizations have services that can be useful to literacy efforts. Read carefully the descriptive paragraphs to see whether a particular organization can help meet your needs.
The labor organizations that belong to the AFL-CIO promote lifelong learning by negotiating education and training programs with employers and participating in a variety of public and community efforts. Besides apprenticeship and technical training, many unions also conduct English-as-a-second language programs for members and their families.
In 1908 Alpha Kappa Alpha (AKA) Sorority became America's first Greek-letter organization established by and for black women. AKA is a channel through which college-trained women improve the social and economic conditions in their city, state, nation, and the world. AKA has over 140,000 members and 860 chapters throughout the United States, West Africa, the Bahamas, the Virgin Islands, Germany, Bermuda, and South Korea. Annually, the sorority donates more than $250,000 in scholarships. AKA concentrates on education, health, economics, the black family, the arts, and rural community and public policy issues.
The Altrusa International Foundation is a charitable corporation committed to altruism in the United States and 17 other countries worldwide. The promotion of literacy is a major focus for the members of the organization.
AMC Entertainment sponsors "Read for the Stars," a summer reading program for children. AMC has strongly supported READ*WRITE*NOW! by providing a site to train learning partners during the summer, copublishing READ*WRITE*NOW! materials, and donating coupons for free movie tickets to children and learning partners participating in the program.
The American Association for Adult and Continuing Education is an international professional association for everyone involved in adult and continuing education. Its goals are to unify the profession, to provide advocacy services to legislators and the public, to provide professional and leadership development opportunities, and to disseminate information through publications and other means. Family literacy and workplace literacy are among its 30 areas of interest.
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), founded in 1848, is the world's leading general scientific organization, with nearly 300 affiliated science and engineering societies and about 143,000 individual members. The programs and activities of the AAAS respond to a broad spectrum of scientific opportunities, including strengthening science, mathematics, and technology education; broadening the human resource pool of scientists and engineers; shaping science and technology policy; promoting public understanding of science and technology; expanding scientific cooperation in global issues; defending scientific freedom; and championing high professional standards. Through Science Books & Films, a source of critical reviews for schools and libraries, and related programs, AAAS seeks to enhance scientific literacy by recognizing and promoting exemplary scientific materials for people of all ages.
The American Association of Community Colleges (AACC), founded in 1920, is the national organization representing a network of more than 1,200 two-year associate degree-granting institutions. AACC member colleges serve the broad public interest of providing access to higher education for millions of Americans. AACC provides a national research agenda that addresses emerging issues among community colleges; a central point for the collection, analysis, evaluation, validation, and dissemination of national community college information; a resource center for data and information on community colleges for member colleges, government heads, the media, and the general public; and a focus for news, scholarly thinking, and research compiled in several publications, including the Community College Times, the Community College Journal, books, and monographs. AACC's involvement in the promotion of reading is a reflection of the commitment of its member colleges to the encouragement of lifelong learning.
The American Association of School Administrators, founded in 1865, is the nation's oldest education leadership organization. Most of its 16,000 members are school superintendents. It has a strong commitment to the promotion of literacy and reading.
The American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) is an organization of more than 34 million members 50 years of age and over. AARP promotes voluntarism in literacy programs, cross-generational reading, and lifelong learning opportunities for all generations.
The American Association of School Librarians (AASL), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), has more than 7,700 members and is the largest organization of school library media professionals. Currently AASL has two major initiatives. "Count on Reading" encourages the nation's young people to read a billion books and become avid readers and library users. It encourages school library media specialists to work with others in their communities to build a nation of readers by creating reading initiatives or by linking existing reading initiatives to this national effort. The second initiative, "ICONnect: Connecting Learners to Information," offers school library media specialists, teachers, and students the opportunity to learn the skills necessary to navigate on the information superhighway.
Since 1986 the American Bar Association's Standing Committee on Law and Literacy has distributed its manual, Lawyers for Literacy, conducted literacy leadership conferences, and assisted bar associations, courts, and lawyers in their efforts to support literacy movements. Civic literacy is vital to the proper functioning of American justice systems and democratic institutions.
Founded in 1900, the American Booksellers Association (ABA) is a nonprofit trade organization that works on behalf of retail bookstores to promote the availability of books. ABA represents the interests of its 4,400 bookstore members operating in approximately 7,000 locations nationwide through education, research, and information. Among its myriad activities is the Convention and Trade Exhibit, the largest English-language book trade show worldwide, attracting some 25,000 book people annually.
The American Council on Education is an umbrella organization that focuses on advocacy and leadership training in the field of education. The Council's GED Testing Service gives adults who have not graduated from high school the opportunity to earn a high school equivalency diploma based on passing the Tests of General Educational Development (GED). Literacy and a love of reading are key to success on the GED.
The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) represents 870,000 members -- K-12 teachers, paraprofessionals, and higher education and other public employees. AFT supports higher literacy standards for the general public as well as national standards for subject area content in the nation's schools. It offers leadership and professional development programs designed to reform and restructure schools.
AFB's National Initiative on Literacy develops programs, products, and strategies to ensure that people who are blind or visually impaired will become literate to the fullest extent possible in the most appropriate media.
One of the programs designed to assist teachers is the National Braille Literacy Mentor Project. This project has created a national network of expert teachers of braille who can serve as mentors to new teachers, contribute to AFB projects and publications, and share their expertise with others. One-on-one mentor partnerships can be established for teachers who request it. Strategies for Success (SOS) can also be created to seek solutions for particular situations or students. Teacher mentors have also been involved in public education campaigns to promote braille literacy. A quarterly newsletter, DOTS for Braille Literacy, contains articles of interest to teachers of braille. The newsletter is disseminated in print, braille, on disk, and on-line.
The American GI Forum, founded in 1948, is a service organization for Hispanic American veterans and their families. Its motto is, "Education is our freedom, and freedom should be everybody's business." With a membership exceeding 100,000 in its 500 chapters nationwide, it promotes literacy and reading as a means of improving the lives of the people the organization serves.
The American Indian Library Association was established in 1979 to promote the development of and access to library and information services by American Indians. Membership is open to any person, library, or other organization interested in contributing to the achievement of these goals.
Mensa is an international society with one, and only one qualification for membership: a score in the top 2 percent of the population on a standardized IQ test. Mensa has three purposes: to identify and foster human intelligence for the benefit of humanity; to encourage research in the nature, characteristics, and uses of intelligence; and to promote stimulating intellectual and social opportunities for its members. Mensa promotes literacy and reading with the belief that without the ability to read it is impossible to fulfill the potential of intelligence.
The American Postal Workers Union (APWU), AFL-CIO, is the largest postal union in the world, representing some 340,000 employees of the U.S. Postal Service, who serve as clerks, maintenance, and motor vehicle workers and special delivery messengers. Because letters and other forms of written communication are the lifeblood of the U.S. Postal Service, APWU actively supports literacy programs and encourages its members and their families to read together regularly and to make reading a lifetime habit.
The AmeriCorps Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center (ECTAC) was established primarily to provide support to the AmeriCorps service network of the Corporation for National Service and other national service/early childhood initiatives. ECTAC provides help in many ways: on-site; through telephone consultation; in national, regional, and state workshops; and via the Internet. ECTAC provides technical assistance to national service projects engaged in child care, Head Start, school readiness, early childhood development, family literacy, teen parenting, parent training, and other early childhood programs. ECTAC works closely with a related Child Care Bureau activity of the Child Care Technical Assistance Project, the National Child Care Information Center (NCCIC).
The Aspira Association is the only national, nonprofit organization devoted to serving Puerto Rican and other Latino youth through leadership development and education, including literacy programs.
The Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) is an international, nonprofit, and nonpartisan association of people who believe that all students can succeed in a challenging, well-planned education program. ASCD's some 190,000 members are superintendents, principals, supervisors, teachers, specialists, school board members, professors, and central office staff. As it works to restructure education to create a better future for all students, the association looks beyond isolated concerns to address systemic issues. It regards literacy as the foundation for a thriving democratic society and a core goal for educators.
The Association of American Publishers (AAP) is the principal trade association of the U.S. book publishing industry. Literacy is of special concern to AAP members, whatever their specialty. AAP maintains that the denial of the opportunity for full and meaningful literacy to any individual in this country is antithetical to the values on which the publishing industry is based. Self-interest dictates that publishers support and participate in efforts to create readers receptive to and eager for the books they publish.
The Association of American University Presses (AAUP) is a nonprofit organization that for over 50 years has worked to encourage the dissemination of scholarly research and ideas. Today the 113 members of the AAUP annually publish 9,000 books and more than 800 periodicals. The association seeks to promote public awareness of and interest in the study of literature and knowledge. It is the mission of the association, as education publishers, to promote reading as a vital contribution to success.
The Association of Booksellers for Children offers a national support network for professional children's booksellers who share the goal of encouraging high quality service within the children's book industry. An underlying goal of its activities and programs is to bring high-quality children's books and children together.
The Association of Junior Leagues International (AJLI) is an organization of women that seeks to promote voluntarism, develop the potential of women, and improve the community through the effective action and leadership of trained volunteers. AJLI, headquartered in New York City, is made up of 286 leagues representing 193,000 women throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Britain. The association enlists women of all races, religions, and national origins who demonstrate an interest in and commitment to voluntarism.
The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is a nonprofit organization representing 119 public and private research libraries in North America. The members of ARL are actively involved in the provision of information resources -- including those that are unique to the research and education community. ARL programs and services promote equitable access to and effective use of knowledge in support of teaching, research, scholarship, literacy, and community service.
The Association of Youth Museums (AYM) is a professional service organization that seeks to enhance the quality, expand the capacity, and advance the vision of youth museums so that they may fulfill their mission in the interest of children. Founded in 1962 as a support group for youth museum directors, AYM has broadened its services and purposes as an international association. Membership consists primarily of youth museums but includes traditional museums with an interest in child/family audiences (300 museums in all), individuals, and corporate members. The promotion of literacy and reading is essential to the accomplishment of the association's mission.
The Auxiliary of the National Rural Letter Carriers' Association, established in 1924, has approximately 50,000 members whose spouses are rural letter carriers. Realizing that the strength of our nation depends on a literate population, the auxiliary, through participation in numerous literacy programs, encourages and teaches children and adults in rural America to read.
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