Events + Training
The Literacy Council of Washington County has events and trainings year-round. Check out our upcoming events.
Full SchedulePurpose and Goals
Our Purpose is to promote literacy in Washington County by providing free individualized basic reading/writing instructions to the semi-literate and illiterate, and conversation skills to non-English speaking people.
Our Goals
- To provide individualized basic reading and writing instruction to non-literate, semi-literate to residents of Washington County over 18 years old.
- To provide free, individualized conversation skills, reading and writing instructions to non-English speaking residents of Washington County over 18 years old.
- To train people to be Tutors who are over 18 years old, fluent in English, can commit to meeting with a student at least one-two hours each week, possess patience, enthusiasm, dedication, flexibility, cultural sensitivity and a desire to help someone else.
Our History
The Literacy Council of Washington County was founded by a small group of people dedicated to literacy in November 1986 and was known as the Northwest Central Literacy Council. Our program focus was to “Respond to the community’s mandate to upgrade adult basic skills with particular emphasis on offering conversational English skills to the foreign born.” The office closed in the mid-90s. Then in 1996 a Hagerstown resident attended a Tutor Training Workshop in Frederick and recognized that the need in Washington County wasn’t being met. While talking to the Frederick tutor trainers, she was persuaded to reopen the Hagerstown office. In January 1998, she and 9 other interested people met at the Hagerstown library for their first meeting to form the Washington County Literacy Council.
In the U.S. today, nearly 20% of adults are functionally illiterate, 10% do not have a high school education and 34% of the foreign-born has trouble speaking English. Without literacy or English skills, they face higher rates of joblessness, poverty, abuse, exploitation, medical problems and mortality. The Literacy Council of Washington County is helping to change these distressing statistics. Through the efforts of our tutors, we work to ensure a good quality of life for these individuals, ensure an educated workforce for employers, and improve the economic outlook of our county.
