Seven literacy nonprofits across the state have joined forces to form Literacy New Jersey, an advocacy group that serves the 17 percent of New Jersey residents who are low-literate or functionally illiterate.
According to Literacy New Jersey CEO Elizabeth Gloeggler, the merger was born out of a desire to make the state’s literacy support programming more cohesive, effective and efficient.
“It allows us to really concentrate locally on providing program services,” Gloeggler said. “Instead of all of us having a separate board of directors and doing separate fundraising and running individual payrolls, now we can do all those things as one.”
Literacy New Jersey is headquartered in Metuchen and has locations in Burlington, Gloucester, Mercer, Middlesex, Ocean and Union counties.
One Middlesex County office is located at 380 Washington Road, Suite F, Sayreville. More information is available at www.lpnj.org.
“We’re located in six counties, and we have offices where people can come in, be assessed and be matched with a tutor,” she said. “We have relationships with each county’s literacy programming, so if someone comes to us and says they need help somewhere specific, we can get them to where they need to be,” she said.
Some 8,000 students received free literacy instruction last year. Those eligible are individuals over the age of 18 who struggle with the English language and have specific target goals they wish to accomplish.
Literacy New Jersey provides free GED preparation classes, citizenship classes and English as a second language (ESL) conversation groups. The nonprofit also teaches basic literary skills, which help students with learning disabilities and populations with limited educational opportunities.
“It is our job to make sure that adults in New Jersey know how to read, write and speak English,” Gloeggler said. “So we work together to recruit volunteers from the community, train them and match them with our students.”
Tutors work on a volunteer basis, she added.
“Our staff manages a ton of volunteers who provide literacy instruction. The employees of the organization support those volunteers, recruit them, train them and mobilize them,” she said.
Students, who range in age from 18 to their late 70s, often seek out the programs to help them improve their language skills for the workplace, or to attain credentials that could afford them a better job in the future.
“Our students usually come to us if they have a job they need to keep but they can’t read the notes the boss is writing to them, or they can’t understand English well enough to advance in their workplace,” Gloeggler said.
Many adults also come to the organization to better understand the native English speakers who work with their children, she added.
“A lot of times, their questions have to do with school stuff — they can’t help their kids with homework; they can’t read to their kids; or their child was sick, and they went to the doctor but couldn’t communicate what was wrong with their child,” Gloeggler said.
The organization offers students as much instruction as they need to reach their goals, free of charge, she added.
“This past year, we had 55 students who got their GEDs,” Gloeggler said. “Some of them are now going on to further education and into training programs.”
The organization receives funding from the U.S. Department of Labor, local grants, foundations, corporations and fundraisers.
The literacy groups now united as Literacy New Jersey are Literacy Volunteers of New Jersey, Literacy Volunteers of Mercer County, Literacy Volunteers of Burlington County, Literacy Programs of New Jersey, Literacy Volunteers of Union County, Literacy Volunteers of Ocean County and Literacy Volunteers of Gloucester County.