• Students enrolled in our literacy program met one or more of their goals last year (i.e., obtaining a driver’s license, gaining employment, reading to their children, etc.).
• VLC’s services are empowering. We teach adults the basic reading, math and workplace skills they needs to be self-sufficient members of our community.
• For every dollar invested in literacy, approximately $33 is returned to the community in terms of increased productivity and reduced social and health care cost.
• VLC depends largely on volunteer tutors. The conservative market value of their services for our most recent fiscal year was about $325,000

VLC must rely on private contributors in order to provide free services to students in need

40 YEARS AND COUNTING:  The Volusia Literacy Council history begins with understanding the value of partnerships.  It evolved from the West Volusia Literacy Council (formed in 1979 in DeLand) and the Greater Daytona Beach Literacy Council (formed in 1983).  In 1985, leaders of the two agencies discerned that they could function better as a unit, rather than competing for the same dollars and became a successful merger.

COLLEGIAL COLLABORATION:  The council has been cooperating with Daytona State College since the early 1980s, working with the Adult Basic Education Department.  DSC refers adults with low reading, language and math abilities to the Volusia Literacy Council for one-on-one tutoring when its students are unable to function in its remedial or GED courses. In turn, the council refers students with higher-level abilities who contact us to the college when they would benefit more from regular coursework.  DSC provides the Literacy Council with offices and equipment on the Daytona Beach and DeLand campuses.

WORKING WITH THE COMMUNITY:  Over the last 40+years, the Council has worked to forge partnerships with other agencies in the community to provide on-site tutoring.  Several successful relationships include Reality House, where inmates during their last months of incarceration sign up to be students to work toward their GEDs and are tutored by in-house tutors as well as those from the outside; Project Warm and the House Next Door, where participants in the substance-abuse program are tutored on site; ALPI, where farm workers and others are tutored on site; and Faith at Work where low income students are able to receive free GED tutoring and financial provision to take the exam.

HISTORICAL INFLUENCE:  We have tutored over 20,000 students in the last 40 years, worked with over 5,000 volunteers and distributed over $4,000,000 worth of literacy materials.  Many of our students reported GED’s obtained, job placements, children influenced by their parents’ successes, and pursuit of higher education.