Advocacy is central to Literacy KC’s mission. With the onset of COVID-19 and the stay at home order, we have been searching for new ways to advocate for our students and organization. This includes expanding our efforts to legislative action.
The challenges we face in this new climate become exponential for low literacy adults, who may struggle with:
- Staying connected through digital means
- Finding and discerning reliable information to protect themselves and their families
- Applying for unemployment and other critical services
Further, as an adult education non-profit, we are at the intersection of two sectors that are becoming increasingly vulnerable to the current financial circumstances, even though the need for our services will increase as low-wage workers seek to improve their skills.
Therefore, we have found it more necessary than ever to reach out to our elected officials to ask for their support. To advocate for increased funding for adult education and charitable organizations, we:
- Participated in the Coalition on Adult Basic Education’s Virtual Capitol Hill Day
- Sent a letter from our board to Rep. Cleaver, Sen. Blunt, and Sen. Hawley
- Asked our constituents to also contact their senators and representatives
Our efforts will not end here. Please join us as we continue to advocate for low literacy adults in the Kansas City Metro area. Sign-up for our newsletter to receive advocacy action alerts and consider donating or volunteering to directly support our students.
To read more in our innovation series, click here to hear from Gillian Helm on Literacy KC’s response to COVID-19, here to hear from Autumn Burton on distance learning or here to hear from J.P. Deckert on creative fundraising.