Margaret Cotton said she cried when she first saw the effects of the Delta Council Adult Literacy Program.
Cotton, the program’s project manager, knew a student who, prior to taking literacy classes, could not read or identify letters of the alphabet. The man makes his living doing yard work and odd jobs in the Delta. One day, she said, after he completed the course, he stopped her and asked how to spell a word.
“I asked if I could see what he was doing,” Cotton said via email. “He was writing out a bill for his service to someone. I cried because I had witnessed a person who couldn’t read a first-grade word list three months ago enhance his entrepreneurship.”
“To me,” she added, “that was life-changing results.”
Cotton, with the help of Cyndi Long, the site operations manager for Greenwood of GE Capital, wants to bring the literacy program to Greenwood. It currently serves 11 counties and 17 towns in the Delta. To get the free classes, however, a city must have at least three students sign up. Thus far, Greenwood only has one.
A national survey estimated that 40 percent of adults in the Delta are below Level 1 literacy, and Cotton and her team see that as a problem.
“Illiteracy leads to increased poverty, high school dropout rates, unemployment, poor health and low self esteem,” she explained.
Cotton said that once three people in Greenwood have signed up for the classes, the program will send a tutor to begin teaching.
The classes include 10 one-on-one 45-minute sessions once a week. Participants will learn how to read for whatever purpose, whether it’s reading to their children or grandchildren or simply reading the newspaper or mail.
Literacy also paves the way for a participant to apply for a driver’s license.
The classes, which have been serving the Delta since 2003, are private and completely free. Contact Cotton at (662) 686-3368 for more information.
• Contact Jeanie Riess at 581-7235 or jriess@gwcommonwealth.com.
