Pittsburgh Presbytery - Mission Agencies

Allegheny County Literacy Council, Inc./
Christian Literacy Associates

UNITED WAY #2146

541 Perry Highway
Pittsburgh, PA 15229
412-364-3777

MISSION

Christian Literacy Associates is committed to reaching the functionally illiterate adults and children throughout the world, and to help them develop the reading skills necessary to operate in our complex technological society. CLA also wishes to expose the individual student to the message contained in the Holy Scriptures through the example and witness of a Christian tutor, as well as through basic Bible-content reading materials supplements. Allegheny County Literacy Council, Inc., the model Christian Literacy Program, was founded in 1975 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

CURRENT PROGRAMS

Allegheny County Literacy Council, Inc. offers free basic reading tutoring for adults and children using Bible-content materials. Over 5,350 volunteer tutors have been trained in free four-hour workshops. Work is also being done with learning disabled, hearing impaired, and stroke victims.
The Peer and Parent Reading Tutor Porgram trains older students and parents to work with elementary students to bring them up to grade level and beyond. Spinoffs of ACLC now exist in 50 areas around the country.
Overseas, twenty foreign language Christian Literacy primers have been developed. In Malawi, Africa, 10,000 tutors have been trained through the Presbyterian Synod of Blantyre. The compact disc version of "The Christian Literacy Series" is in use in 54 mission sites in other countries.

HISTORY

Allegheny County Literacy Council, Inc. was founded in 1975 by Dr. and Mrs. Kofmehl as a model "Christian Literacy" program to minister to the needs of the adult illiterate who finds the Bible (and anything else in print) to be a locked book. In 1977, Christian Literacy Associates was formed to reach out to non-readers outside Allegheny County and around the world. Shortly thereafter, work with children, the handicapped, and the mentally challenged was introduced as part of the outreach. Recent activites of the Council include training staffs of local churches to hold one and two week-long Summer Reading Camps for at-risk elemetary students, and the Peer and Parent Reading Tutor Program, which trains parents and older students to assist kindergarten and first grade students. Christian Literacy welcomes inquiries from churches and church governing bodies beyond the borders of our model program.

PROFESSIONAL STAFF

Dr. William and Linda Kofmehl, Jennie Ebner, LaVerne Pennell, Sylvia Stuckrath, Guy Duerbeck, Marje Alexis.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR CONGREGATIONAL OR INDIVIDUAL INVOLVEMENT

Churches can become "literacy tutoring centers," and individuals can become trained literacy tutors or volunteer office staff.

INFORMATIONAL PROGRAMS AVAILABLE

Speakers available for women's groups, adult forums, and church dinners. Dr. Kofmehl presents a Sunday sermon titled, "The Bible is a Locked Book: Literacy as a Christian Concern in the U.S. and Overseas." A four-hour tutor training workshop can be scheduled for groups of fifteen to twenty people interested in participating in this vital work. A tutor-training video may be borrowed.

VISIT US ON THE WEB

www.christianliteracy.com