The Capital Area Literacy Coalition helps children and adults learn to read, write and speak English with an ultimate goal of helping individuals achieve self-sufficiency. We achieve this through direct services and by enhancing literacy efforts of community organizations in the Capital Area and throughout the state of Michigan.

Description:
We Provide: Tutors with the training and support to achieve students? literacy goals. Students receive free, one-to-one or small group instruction. Our Executive Director, an MSU professor, is an internationally known authority on literacy and learning. Thus students can receive a high level of service regardless of any learning disability they may have. Our award winning programs have been published and disseminated widely. Community volunteers generously donate their time. We have over 75 tutoring locations. Our Learning Centers include books, tapes, videos and computer programs for adults and children. Diagnostic testing and vision screening are free.
We help: children struggling in school, migrant families, refugees learning English and adults trying to get a better job and improve their families? lives. One-on-one tutoring is available for children, teens and adults for basic and English as a second language. GED preparation help is also available.
We are a non-profit agency (Section 501 (c) (3)). We solicit funding from sources including, but not limited to: Capital Area United Way, federal, state and local grants, foundations, businesses and individuals. We are audited regularly by a Certified Public Accountant.

History:
Capital Area Literacy Coalition
Mission Statement and Brief History

The Capital Area Literacy Coalition (CALC) exists to improve the quality of life in the Lansing area and the state of Michigan by promoting and achieving literacy for children, teens, and adults. According to the U.S. Department of Education, approximately 20 percent of adults, both locally and nationally, are functionally illiterate. Our students are unable to use reading, writing, and/or simple computation in common situations such as reading a newspaper or writing out an employment application. CALC addresses this issue not only by offering assistance in reading for these adults, but by also targeting the children who will most likely grow up to be these adults. There are two slogans that have been around for many years; ?If you teach a woman to read, you teach a family to read. Teach many women to read and society flourishes? and ?Give a man a fish, he eats once. Teach a man to fish, he eats forever.?
The Capital Area Literacy Coalition was organized in April 1985 by a group of Lansing area people who wanted to work together to make an impact on illiteracy in the Tri-county area. They represented adult education programs, libraries, human service agencies, college and university programs, churches, unions and state and local agencies in Clinton, Eaton and Ingham counties. They decided to form a coalition to share resources and information. Articles of Incorporation were submitted in l986. The organization has been designated as a 501 (c) (3), giving it a non-profit status. To get a high quality of volunteer training and technical support, CALC obtained help initially from the Literacy Volunteers of America, a national literacy organization. Later, CALC improved and expanded its training with the assistance of Dr. Lois A. Bader, a literacy professor from Michigan State University. Several volunteers with doctorates and masters degrees in literacy have been working with the Coalition for over ten years. In the beginning, only adults, defined as individuals 16 years and older not in school, were served with basic literacy instruction. In 1988, services were added for adults who needed to learn English as a second language. This population included migrant workers, refugees and immigrants. In l989, Read to Succeed, a diagnostic/remedial literacy program for children, began, along with the Family School Partnership program for children and teens in public supported housing. The Children?s Book drop program was established in 1990. Over 35,000 books a year are given to children and families living in low-income neighborhoods. In 2001, CALC made the final payment on its building at 1028 East Saginaw in Lansing. Part of the building is rented to a professional service provider. The rental income helps support building maintenance.
CALC has been recognized on national, state and local levels with awards for the high quality of its programs. In 2003 CALC was designated as a ?Supplemental Services Provider? by the State of Michigan for all school districts. All of CALC?s services are free.

Contact people:

Lois A. Bader, Executive Director, (phone), (email) D Clark, Assistant Director, (phone), (email)

Office fax number: (517) 485-1924

Address:

1028 E. Saginaw Lansing, MI 48906 (See a map)

Web Site: http://www.thereadingpeople.org

Directions:

CALC is located on Saginaw (one way headed east) just east of Pennsylvania Ave. on the south (right) side of the street.   Nearest Bus Stop: CATA line 10 or 13, 1 or 2 minute walk