Tri-County Literacy Center, Inc

Program Overview

Interested in global literacy, Ruth J. Colvin had heard Dr. Frank Laubach speak about illiteracy in faraway countries throughout the 1950s. In 1961, when she read a Syracuse Post-Standard newspaper article stating that more than 11,000 people in Syracuse, N.Y., where she lived, couldn't read or write well (based on 1960 U.S. Census figures), that she realized there was a literacy problem in the U.S. After speaking with local social service agencies, community leaders, and church groups about the problem, she worked with reading experts to develop a means to train volunteers to tutor adults. In 1962, she started Literacy Volunteers, Inc in her basement. The organization was chartered in New York State in 1967 as a tax-exempt, non-profit and the name was changed to Literacy Volunteers of America, Inc.

In 1967 Rhoda Baker Henry Clearwater, a Glens Falls resident who loved books and wished to share the joy of reading with others, established a chapter of Literacy Volunteers of America in Glens Falls and spent the remainder of her life volunteering as a tutor and teaching ESL. Volunteers invited members of their community into their homes and churches for coffee and to help them increase their literacy skills.

There have been a number of changes and reorganizations over the years but our mission and goals of assisting our neighbors remains the same and today we are known as Tri-County Literacy Center, Inc.