Volunteers are the backbone of many adult education programs. They tutor, provide administrative support, and raise funds, among other contributions. Adult education programs depend on local businesses and other organizations for these volunteers. Businesses fill this need by encouraging their staff to volunteer as part of their corporate philanthropy strategy.

The Palm Beach County Bar Association in Palm Beach County, Fla. has established a committee dedicated to connecting more than 2,000 attorneys in the county with volunteer and other literacy activities. Lawyers for Literacy (LFL) is one of the Bar Association’s most popular committees. Committee members recruit colleagues at their firms to volunteer for the Literacy Coalition of Palm Beach County (the Coalition). These volunteers participate in the Coalition’s communitywide spelling bee and buy tables at the Love of Literacy fund-raising luncheon. They also participate in book discussions for Read Together Palm Beach County, during which the entire community is encouraged to read the same book at the same time, and visit adult education classrooms on International Reading Day, where they spend considerable time talking and answering questions about their legal careers. They discuss how literacy is essential to their jobs and encourage learners to continue their education and training.

The Rockefeller Law Center in Houston County, Ga. also encourages its staff to volunteer in the community. The business manager for the center, Jessica Berryhill, volunteers as board secretary with the Houston County Certified Literate Community Program (CLCP). She learned about this volunteer opportunity in 2006, when she participated in the Houston County Chamber of Commerce Leadership Academy, where she met the CLCP coordinator. Berryhill expressed an interest in the CLCP and was invited to join the board. Her employer encouraged her to accept the opportunity and supports her involvement by giving her time to attend meetings and fund-raisers and make calls on behalf of CLCP. Berryhill's volunteer activities also align with her employer’s mission; literacy is essential for understanding important documents, such as legal papers, employment policies, or medical records, and benefiting from such information.

Lessons Learned

Businesses and their staff participating in volunteer activities in their communities have learned the following:

Give what you can.

Attorneys determine their own levels of involvement in Lawyers for Literacy (LFL) and the Coalition. Some attorneys participate in committee work or attend events. Others may tutor on a one-on-one basis, while still others contribute by planning and staffing events. LFL makes it easy for attorneys to support literacy, especially given their heavy workloads and busy schedules. Recently, for example, the committee hosted a preliminary spelling bee to assemble a team for the Coalition’s local Great Grown-Up Spelling Bee and to raise funds for literacy. An entrance fee of $30 included dinner and entertainment, and all proceeds went to support literacy programs.

Multiply your employee volunteers’ efforts with additional support.

The Rockefeller Law Center makes financial contributions to the Houston County CLCP to fund events that inform the public of the need for and availability of literacy services. The donations from small companies shore up the grants received from large corporations—every gift makes a difference.

Partner with a literacy coalition.

Occasionally, LFL will adopt an individual elementary school, but usually the attorneys work exclusively with the Literacy Coalition of Palm Beach County. The Coalition brings together every literacy provider in the community, making it easy for groups like LFL to become involved. One advantage of a partnership with a literacy coalition, according to Philip DiComo, an attorney in Palm Beach, is that the Coalition does the hard work of identifying literacy needs in the community, connecting volunteers to the projects most in need, and determining how best to distribute resources and funds to the various providers. By doing so, the Coalition provides a single point of contact for an extensive network of literacy and education organizations.

Connect with literacy organizations through a professional association.

According to Palm Beach attorney Philip DiComo, a member of LFL, professional associations are “a way for attorneys in the area to support the literacy effort in a real, concrete fashion. A lot of people would say that literacy is important to them, but they don’t know how to support it. LFL gives lawyers the ability to connect with the cause, to get together and provide support for the Coalition itself ... beyond just writing a check.” Moreover, both the individual attorneys and the LFL committee benefit from their partnership with the Palm Beach Bar Association. Attorneys have an opportunity to connect with their local bar association and serve on one of its many committees. And the committee benefits by piggybacking on the bar association's existing resources for communications, recruitment, and dissemination. For example, the bar association sends out an annual invitation for committee membership to all attorney members, which is how many join LFL. The association also regularly highlights LFL in its newsletters and e-mail updates.

Regularly update employers on the impact of your volunteer activities.

Business Manager Jessica Berryhill of Rockefeller Law Center acknowledges that businesses need to earn a profit and that her employer may wonder about the benefits of her philanthropic activities to the firm. She therefore lets them know about the public impact of her efforts, for example, how large the audience will be for a company-sponsored ad or what the expected attendance will be at an event she volunteers for during work hours.

Benefits

Benefits to Business

Some benefits to businesses in encouraging staff to volunteer with community organizations include:

• Increased employee satisfaction because staff have the opportunity to participate in causes they care about;
• Positive publicity associated with supporting a good cause;
• Higher visibility in the community;
• Support for the well-being and economic development of the community;
• Publicity through media coverage of adult literacy events; and
• Opportunities to connect with other businesses in the community.

Benefits to Adult Education

Some benefits to adult education in recruiting volunteers from business partners include:

• Financial aid and in-kind support;
• Access to business expertise and guidance;
• Access to professional networks for support and resources;
• Improved programs and services;
• Expanded capacity to provide services;
• Greater community awareness of adult literacy programs and issues; and
• Expanded opportunities for partnerships.

Resources

The following resources have been compiled for further reading on topics related to business-adult education partnerships. Pop-up windows with links to and descriptions of the resources will appear as you click on the resource titles. Resources are categorized below as: Business Partnerships (descriptions of the business-adult education partnerships referenced above); Partnership Profiles (related examples of other community partnerships); How-Tos (guides and tools for establishing partnerships); Research; the Case for Business Involvement; and Web Sites. A complete list of resources related to business-adult education partnerships is found in the Workforce Issues section on the C-PAL Web site.

Business Partnerships

Lawyers for Literacy: Connecting Through a Professional Association
Working Together: A Guide to Business and Adult Education Partnerships

Rockefeller Law Center: Supporting Employee Volunteerism
Working Together: A Guide to Business and Adult Education Partnerships

Partnership Profiles

Houston County Certified Community Literacy Program
Community Partnerships for Adult Learning (C-PAL) Partnership Profile

Literacy Coalition of Palm Beach County
Community Partnerships for Adult Learning (C-PAL) Partnership Profile