Literacy is the Edge, a student advocacy group at the University of Alabama, raised more than $4,000 dollars in 2011 to help fight against illiteracy.
The group’s campaign, “Empower Literacy,” raised awareness about functional illiteracy in West Alabama. The campaign began on Nov. 7 and lasted until Dec. 1.
“Nearly one in four Alabamians is considered functionally illiterate, meaning they lack basic reading, writing and math skills that make it hard to function effectively in day-to-day life,” said Jessica Carlton, president of LITE.
The money LITE raised will go to the Literacy Council of West Alabama to help with their 2012 campaign against illiteracy among West Alabamians.
To help LITE’s efforts, the graduate students created brochures, flyers and promotional stickers to inform people about their campaign. Along with this, they released three public service announcements in partnership with WVUA-TV.
The efforts of LITE resulted in more than 500 hours of work outside of class, 200 reading tutors and 2,500 students who heard about the campaign.
LITE began as a class project in 2008 through the advertising and public relations graduate program. In 2009, the group became a formal student organization and started recruiting students. Two years later, in 2011, LITE took on their first client, the Literacy Council of West Alabama, to work on improving literacy rates for those living in West Alabama.
“LITE exceeded our set goals twofold, and we are happy it is making a difference,” said Patrick Boardman, vice president of communication and production for LITE.
“Mainly, we wanted to use interpersonal interaction,” Boardman said. “We had tables at the Ferguson Center and asked, ‘Do you know about functional illiteracy?’ and we also worked with different fraternities and sororities. We worked with Zoe’s Kitchen, had an iPad2 giveaway and we had a table during the Quidditch on the Quad matches. So, our main focus was interpersonal interaction.”
For more information about LITE, their campaign or getting involved, email [email protected].
