Coalition launches Tucson's first literacy zone

From a press release / March 26, 2010

Tucson launched it first Literacy Zone - the Sunnyside Neighborhood Literacy Zone - on March 20 at Mission Manor Park.

The Zone was launched by the Literacy for Life Coalition in partnership with the Sunnyside Neighborhood Association.

The Literacy Zone is partially funded by proceeds from the Tucson Festival of Books. The Literacy for Life Coalition is sponsored by the Community Foundation for Southern Arizona as an initiative from the 2007 Tucson Regional Town Hall.

The purpose of a literacy zone is to improve literacy rates in the Literacy Zone as measured by:

• Percent of adults with high school diploma/certificate
  
• Percent of adults with some college
  
• High school graduation rates
  
• Percent of 8th graders performing at grade level
  
• Percent of 4th graders reading at grade level
  
• Percent of 5-year-olds assessed as kindergarten ready as they begin kindergarten
  

Our goal is to improve the current levels by 20 percent in five years.

The population of the Sunnyside Literacy Zone is 16,000 of which 47 percent have no high school diploma.

Seven not-for-profit organizations, three educational institutions, and the Pima County Library have come together to coordinate and expand services in the Zone: Make Way for Books, Reach Out and Read, Reading Seed, Voices, Inc, Stories that Soar, Oasis International of Tucson, Literacy Volunteers of Tucson, Pima Community College, the University of Arizona, and Sunnyside School District.

The Sunnyside Neighborhood was chosen to be Tucson's First Literacy Zone because of its strong community leaders and community coherence, the commitment to the Zone from the School District., and the Public Library Branches with active community library programming.

Contact: Martha Gilliland, Executive Director, Literacy for Life Coalition (520) 906 3963 or mgilliland@cfsoaz.org

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	Map of the Literacy Zone Updated 5 months ago