Our Mission
To provide free tutoring to adults in reading, writing and speaking English to strengthen our community, families, and the workforce.
The Need for Literacy
Adults need to be able to read and write in order to:
- Get good jobs — of adults with the lowest literacy levels, 43% live in poverty.
- Stay healthy — half of American adults have difficulty understanding and using health information.
- Be active in their communities.
- Avoid human rights abuse.
- Avoid crime – 75% of state prison inmates did not complete high school or can be classified as low literate.
- Raise children who have strong literacy skills. Children of parents with low literacy skills have a 72% chance of being at the lowest reading levels themselves.
Our Commitment
Literacy is assessed on a scale from 1 – 6. Most jobs today require literacy skills at a 7th grade reading level or above (levels 4+). 60 % of New Mexicans are at level 2 literacy or below.
Literacy Volunteers of Santa Fe is committed to bringing our students up to level 4 for reading, writing, numeracy, and speaking.
1. National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), “Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies,” (PIAAC), 2017.
2. New Mexico Department of Health, “New Mexico’s Health Indicator Data and Statistics,” March 20, 2022.
3. NCES, “Adult Literacy in the United States,” July 2019.
4. Proliteracy, “Adult Literacy Facts,” 2023.
