The Literacy Project Inc.
Phil Rabinowitz, Executive Director
Alexandra Schroeder, Associate Director
13 Newell Court
Greenfield, Mass. 01301
(413) 774-3934
(413) 774-3946 fax

Life can be bleak and seemingly hopeless for poor people in the dying former mill towns of Western Massachusetts, but this 12-year-old program is bringing back hope with a simple but surprisingly effective approach: It uses literacy education (or actually, in most cases, the broader tool of general educational development for adults) as a tool to build community, bring people together, and give them the tools of self-reliance.

Evolved from an adult basic-education class at Greenfield Community College and a state-funded program of the county Employment and Training office that merged and then became a non-profit organization, The Literacy Project now operates at five sites scattered across two large counties in the towns of Orange/Athol, Greenfield, Haydenville, Ware and Cummington; it's an area where the presence of such well-known colleges as Amherst, Smith, Mount Holyoke and the University of Massachusetts and the affluence of Northampton somewhat cloak the reality of extensive rural poverty and functional illiteracy in the area's dying former mill towns.

The Project's classes may seem traditional at first -- students, including anyone who walks in the doors, may sign up for reading, math and other GED-directed classes that meet twice weekly for six hours a week. But the organization's approach involves far more than just reading: In every class, based on participants' own interests, the subject matter ranges beyond the "Three R's" to cover, well, life. One reading group evolved into a four-year community organizing effort that may finally yield public transportation for the town of Orange next year. Another group studied personal health, learning not only to read but also to improve their own nutrition and the care of their bodies. "We define 'literacy' broadly," Rabinowitz said. "It's not just reading and writing, but culture as well." Added Schroeder: "And talking, and listening." Rabinowitz said, "We end up defining literacy as 'having the skills to do what you need to do in the world." Said Schroeder: "And how to SHAPE your world."

With a staff of two administrators, five full-time and two part-time teachers and two clerical workers, this project runs five local centers for just $283,000 a year. Its largest single revenue source is a grant from the state Department of Education.

All the feature stories on @GRASS-ROOTS.ORG's pages are reported and written by Robin Garr, a prize-winning journalist who has visited more than 500 innovative grassroots programs in all 50 states since 1990.

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