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 Community Type Mid-sized city and surrounding county; population of approximately 1.3 million. Geographic RegionNortheast Overview For more than two decades, the Greater Pittsburgh Literacy Council (GPLC) has been offering literacy services to adults and families. With 40 full-time staff members and 600 volunteers, this nonprofit organization serves approximately 3,000 adult students yearly. Students participate in adult basic education, GED preparation, English literacy, family literacy, workplace literacy, and computer skills instruction. Financial support for GPLC comes from federal and state governments, corporations, foundations, and donations from individuals. The guidance provided by its board of directors is also essential to GPLC’s success. Representing an array of organizations, the board can offer expert advice on such topics as finance, real estate, marketing, human resources, higher education, libraries, insurance, and the law. Whenever members step down, the board assesses its areas of expertise and actively pursues new members to fill gaps. Partnership Highlights GPLC has many partnerships, both formal and informal, depending on the organization and nature of the collaboration. Partners include community centers, drug rehabilitation programs, One-Stops, churches, libraries, public schools, and others. In some cases, partners offer the Council in-kind services, such as space for classes or outreach meetings. In other cases, as stipulated in its mission, GPLC will provide “leadership and resources to other agencies to maximize the effectiveness of all people who address” adult and family literacy. Examples include the Southwest Professional Development Center, GPLC’s health literacy training, and Literacy AmeriCorps Pittsburgh. Southwest Professional Development Center Since 1992, GPLC has housed the Southwest Professional Development Center, one of six state-funded staff development centers for adult education in Pennsylvania. Each year, the Center provides and brokers training for more than 300 adult education instructors and administrators in seven counties. They come from a variety of partner organizations, including school districts, community colleges, state correctional institutions, and community-based organizations. In all, thirty programs serving more than 15,000 students benefit from the Center’s workshops, focus groups, learning-from-practice projects, teleconferences, and statewide training modules. Training covers subjects such as GED essay scoring and retention strategies and gives staff members of various agencies an opportunity to get to know one another and work together on common issues and challenges. Health Literacy The Pittsburgh region is a national leader in healthcare, and so it is logical that GPLC would become involved in the emerging issue of health literacy. In recent years, the agency has been meeting with a variety of hospital and healthcare professionals to explore this issue and design a program that fits its mission and expertise. GPLC also conducted an informal survey of its students and found that more than half need assistance with health-related issues (e.g., reading prescription labels, communicating with doctors, health awareness, nutrition). As a result of the information it gathered about health literacy, GPLC added questions to its adult learner intake form, so that the Center’s instructors could use the information to develop appropriate curriculum. GPLC instructors and volunteers also have participated in several in-service training sessions on health literacy. With a grant from the Highmark Foundation, GPLC is expanding this training to include adult education programs in three regions of Pennsylvania. Three of the state’s six professional development centers are active in this effort, which means that the Highmark health literacy project will reach 36 of the 67 counties in the state. Each teacher who attends the training agrees to teach the health literacy curriculum to at least ten adult students in his/her program. Teachers participating in this project are eligible for a cash stipend when they complete all project objectives. Literacy AmeriCorps Pittsburgh To expand the capacity of other agencies to address Pittsburgh’s literacy issues, GPLC also provides AmeriCorps volunteers to a variety of adult and children’s literacy programs. These AmeriCorps members serve for 1,700 hours over a one-year period and can renew their service for a second year. GPLC recruits and places 25 volunteers yearly in Pittsburgh-based literacy programs. Volunteers must participate in a seven-day orientation provided by GPLC, as well as bimonthly training sessions in which they can share their experiences. This project, like those described above, has built cooperation and collaboration among the various service providers.  Supplemental Materials
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