Dear Friends of Literacy Network,

2020 was a challenging year for everyone, especially adult learners. Our mission expanded because the pandemic changed everything, and our students needed help with more than reading and writing.

When the pandemic caused us to close our doors in March 2020, our student services team contacted students to ask how they were doing and offered to mail them books. We learned that more than half of the students lost work, so our team made more than 1,200 connections to food pantries, income support and rent assistance. We worked to build stronger connections with other organizations throughout the community to support students.

Staff instructors, tutors and program managers collaborated on remote instruction and created a remote enrollment process. Most students continued attending programs throughout the year as we kept class times, instructors and tutors consistent. Most importantly, we never missed a week in connecting personally with each learner.

When we learned that 27% of parents were struggling to support their kids in virtual learning, we created Zoom support groups so parents could ask questions about their kids’ assignments, understand their schedules, learn who to contact at the school, and talk to other parents about how to motivate their kids.

During this time, all staff said they were highly engaged in their work and that they were contributing to an important mission.

Many thanks for your continued support of adult learners. Together, we are making our community stronger.

With sincere gratitude,