Literacy Action, Inc. Welcomes New President & Executive Director

Contact:  Kristin Gray                                                                FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE          (404) 818-7326                                                                                                                                       kgray@literacyaction.org

Literacy Action, Inc. Welcomes 
New President & Executive Director

ATLANTA, GA−  Literacy Action, Inc. is proud to announce that Austin Dickson has been named its new President and Executive Director, effective October 23, 2012.

Literacy Action is Georgia’s largest nonprofit provider of adult basic education. The organization offers free literacy instruction and job-readiness services for adults with low-literacy skills. 

Austin Dickson previously served as the Director of Philanthropy for Action Ministries, Inc., a statewide, faith-based, homeless services and basic needs organization. Before joining Action Ministries, he worked for The Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta on its regional and environmental initiatives.

A Texas native and Texas Christian University graduate, Dickson earned master’s degrees from the School of Divinity at The University of Edinburgh, Scotland, and the Candler School of Theology at Emory University, where he was the student body president. He also holds a master’s in public policy from Georgia Tech. He has taught philosophy at Clayton State University since 2008.

Dickson serves in a leadership role at the East Lake Family YMCA and at several startup nonprofits, such as the Atlanta Music Project, Community Farmers Markets, Georgia Benefits Counsel, and L’Arche Atlanta. After his tenure as the President of the East Atlanta Community Association (2010-2011), the community received DeKalb County’s Ernest Prather Neighborhood Award, which recognizes best practices in community development. He is a member of the LEAD Atlanta Class of 2012 and the Leadership DeKalb Class of 2013.

“It’s exciting to take on this leadership role with one of the most high-performing organizations here in Atlanta. We look forward to expanding our services in the city and in the region”, said Dickson.

In the coming year, Literacy Action will continue to focus on its student-centered mission by providing exceptional programming for adults seeking literacy and work skills, as well as raising awareness on the low-literacy epidemic in the Atlanta region and throughout Georgia.

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About Literacy Action, Inc.

Literacy Action, Inc. has been teaching basic literacy skills to adults for more than 44 years and currently stands as the largest community-based adult literacy agency in Georgia.  The mission of Literacy Action is to provide high quality, sustainable literacy programs that break the cycle of intergenerational low literacy and empower students to reach their highest potential and propel them to self-sufficiency. 

For more information, visit www.literacyaction.org  

Cheers to Literacy: Join the Fun.

James O. Rodgers - Atlanta Journal Constitution Guest Columnist on Literacy

James O. Rodgers is a Trustee for Literacy Action, Inc.

We All Pay for Area's Low Literacy Rate

BYLINE:    James O. Rodgers

For the AJC
DATE: September 29, 2012
PUBLICATION: Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The (GA)
EDITION: Main; Atlanta Journal-The Atlanta Constitution
SECTION: News
PAGE: A13

Every day, over one million adult residents of metro Atlanta enjoy the
benefits of being highly educated and highly literate.

Every day, nearly one million adult residents of metro Atlanta struggle with
simple tasks.

If you are reading this article, you probably belong to the first group. It
may surprise you to know that 900,000 of our fellow citizens belong to the
second group. Atlanta has one of the highest percentages of low literate
adults in the country (nearly 20% of adults). We point to our high-literacy
rate with pride, but choose to ignore our equally large low-literacy rate.
That number is staggering. It is unacceptable. It is shameful.

There are two typical reactions when adult literacy is discussed: "I don't
care about adults. They had their chance" or "Adult literacy is important,
but we don't have the resources to do everything."

As a result, we focus on specific programs that aggressively address early
childhood, or even kindergarten through college education. This piecemeal
approach overlooks the big picture. Literacy must be addressed as a
cradle-to-grave issue. Yes, it includes early childhood literacy, school age
(K through college) literacy, and workplace literacy at a minimum. But adult
and family literacy cannot be overlooked. Children don't grow up in a
program. They grow up in families and communities.

Adult and family literacy is essential for two reasons. On the front end,
the biggest predictor of a child's success in school is the presence of
adults (parents and relatives) who read to them from ages 1 to 4. On the
back end, thousands of jobs go unfilled in Georgia because our citizens do
not have the basic literacy skills to qualify.

In addition, low literacy among adults is directly correlated with most of
our most pernicious social ills, including persistent poverty, repetitive
incarceration, dependency on government support and homelessness. All of
this has a negative impact on the economic vitality of our region. We may be
tempted to say that low literacy is "their problem." But in the end,
"Everybody pays for the problem of low literacy."

Cradle-to-grave literacy (the big picture approach) is a hard concept to
hold in your brain. Yet, I believe that it must be the way we approach
literacy for Georgia. Literacy is not simply an education issue. It is an
economic, social and policy issue.

The desired outcome of all efforts in the "literacy movement" is a much
improved system, a pipeline that works for everybody and is more efficient
and effective at producing fully functioning, self-sufficient, work-ready
continuous-learning citizens. It is important that we work diligently at
every level of the pipeline, from early learning to adult and workplace.

The return on investment in this process is not just educational attainment.
It includes reduction in social crimes; lower dependency on government
largesse, economic vitality, reputation for excellence and an opportunity to
redirect public funds to other pressing problems.