WHO we are

Free books at the 1st Annual Rally for Literacy

We are donors, volunteers, tutors, staff, teachers, doctors, parents and students committed to improving our community through literacy.

In 2007, the Tucson Regional Town Hall highlighted literacy as one of our community’s top priorities. As a result of the Town Hall, the Community Foundation for Southern Arizona launched the Literacy for Life Coalition bringing together government, nonprofit, business, media, funding, and educational organizations to inform, share, listen, learn and collaborate to increase our community’s literacy.

That was just the beginning.

In July 2011, five literacy organizations merged to become Literacy Connects and create one powerful voice to promote literacy in all its forms. The Literacy for Life Coalition, Literacy Volunteers of Tucson, Reach Out and Read Southern Arizona, Reading Seed and Stories That Soar! share one common goal: to be part of a literacy movement that creates opportunities and resources to support the learning goals of individuals in our community.

As part of Literacy Connects, each program continues to do its own mission-driven work, but by coming together we are able to do so much more.

Literacy Connects is about how we – as individuals, neighborhoods, organizations and businesses – share a human connection around literacy that helps each of us learn, grow and have a voice. Together, we are developing more resources, serving more people, doing more good, and accomplishing more than ever before.

Sometimes I can’t believe all of the tutors do this for free. Then I think, you can’t pay for something like this. It would be an insult to offer them payment. What they give is priceless!”
— George, LVT Basic Literacy student