About LCMC
The mission of the Literacy Council of Manatee County is to empower Manatee County adults to independence through literacy. Our primary goal is to meet the critical need for a more literate community by helping Manatee County adults with limited literacy skills learn to read, write, understand and speak English well enough to meet the demands of daily life, to improve their potential for meaningful employment, and to enhance the quality of life for themselves and their families. We also encourage them to become involved in and contribute to our community.
Our goal also includes serving as an advocate for the need to build better literacy throughout our community. We constantly strive to educate the public about the value of literacy and the problems associated with illiteracy.
The Literacy Council of Manatee County is a non-profit community based organization which has provided tutorial instruction for adults 18 years and older since 1978. We became a 501 (c) 3 non-profit in 1982 and have been a United Way Partner Agency since 1987. We’re a member of the Florida Literacy Coalition, and an affiliate of ProLiteracy Worldwide, the largest literacy agency in the world.
Literacy Council members have tutored more than 5000 students in its nearly 30 years of existence. We currently have about 135 members, half of whom are active tutors. During the last fiscal year, our volunteers logged almost 7000 community service hours. Twelve of our tutors have tutored for 10 years or more. We provide approximately 4000 hours of tutoring each year, serving about 100 adult learners at any one time for a cumulative total of about 350-400 each year. Presently, about 10 percent are English speakers and 90 percent are English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) learners. Currently, our English learners come primarily from Central and South America, but also from several European and Asian countries.
In addition to learners being taught at our office, we have tutors meeting with their students at all branches of the Manatee Public Library System, as well as many area churches, other non-profits and various organizations. Most tutoring is one-on-one. However, we recently expanded our efforts to conduct small Workforce Literacy for English Learners classes for employees of local businesses at locations throughout the county.
We welcome the opportunity to present our story to your business or organization. To schedule a speaker, please call Lori Johnson at 941-746-8197.
