General Brochure about Right to Read

Annual report for 2008 in PDF format.

The Right to Read Adult Education Center is a community-based non-profit 501c(3) agency that provides literacy instruction to adults throughout Weld County.  It was founded in 1976 by 25 volunteers and a visionary director who created a program to share their passion for reading and writing with 13 functionally illiterate adults.  At that time, it was a one-on-one tutoring program with the motto “Each One Teach One."

Since then, Right to Read has evolved from the one-on-one model to a classroom model, each with 15-25 students taught by professional instructors and classroom aides.  Our modern motto is “Literacy Opens Worlds,” worlds previously inaccessible by the English-illiterate adult, worlds of financial stability, success for their children in school, self-reliance, and greater prosperity.  An average of 250 adults and their families attend our classes each year, taking advantage of this avenue of “opening worlds” through literacy instruction.

• There are an estimated 30,000 adults in Weld County who are not native English speakers (2000 U.S. Census). These are hard-working individuals who have few resources to acquire English skills, skills that are essential to economic and social success.
• There exists a huge cultural gap primarily between non-English speakers and English speakers in our community. Mistrust and miscommunication due to the language barrier exacerbate this problem.

• The graduation rate for Weld County was 78.6% in 2001 (Center for At-Risk Education Annual Report), meaning that approximately 340 young adults do not receive a high school diploma in our county every year. Many of these individuals will one day want to improve their lives and pass the GED exam. We are one of the few agencies in Weld County equipped to prepare them for that at a very low cost.
• In Weld County roughly 10.3% of the population (22,500 adults) lives in poverty (Economic Research Service, 2003 report). The Cycle of Opportunity is closed to most of these individuals who often lack the skills to improve their economic lives.
• Colorado is one of two states in the nation that does not fund adult education. This leaves agencies like ours struggling to find resources to continue to offer excellent educational services to ensure the prosperity of our state and our community.

• Provide English instruction taught by professional educators trained to address the learning needs of non-English speakers of various ethnic backgrounds.
• Continue to offer Adult Basic Education classes to help the illiterate adult learn to read, and prepare those without a diploma for the GED exam, thus helping the learner to improve their employment opportunities and lives in general and providing the means to break into the Cycle of Opportunity.
• Continue and expand our Family Literacy program, which addresses the literacy needs of entire families, a method of intervention proven to be very successful at breaking the Cycle of Dependence.
• Offer classes at various times and locations that are most convenient for our learners, with child care provided where possible to maximize class attendance and completion of the program.
• Carefully monitor all learners with frequent goal-setting sessions to help students keep their ultimate goal in mind.