News Release 5/28/2008

Contact: Clayton F. Naff
For immediate release Executive Director
(402) 476-7323

Statement Regarding United Way Decision on Lincoln Literacy Council

Lincoln Literacy Council is deeply grateful for its years of association with United Way of Lincoln and Lancaster County, and for all the support that we have received and continue to receive from donors to the United Way. We understand that United Way had to make some difficult funding decisions, and we appreciate the way they handled the process.

Although it is naturally disappointing to learn that we have been technically disqualified from eligibility for funding in the 2008-2010 period, we take some comfort in knowing that the citizen review panel ranked our application No. 1 in its class.

They recognized that the language and literacy services the Council provides are a genuine benefit to the community. United Way has told us that the disqualification was an issue of timing, not quality of service or institutional integrity. If not for a grandfather clause in the new criteria which require a two-year history of services to children, we are confident that we would have continued to be a United Way agency.

The fact is that Lincoln Literacy Council currently serves whole families through its health literacy and its family literacy programs. The Council served more than 300 children of adult English language learners in 2007. This year, we are teaching literacy and school readiness skills to refugee and immigrant children at sites throughout the city. However, those programs do not have the required 24-month history.

Thanks to support from various national and local foundations, as well as generous individual and corporate supporters in our community, the Council does not face a financial crisis as a result of United Way's decision. We will, however, need to intensify our fundraising efforts to make up for the loss of United Way funding.

Lincoln Literacy Council, founded in 1972, remains a widely respected nonprofit organization with more than 250 active volunteers. It partners with more than 20 community organizations to provide English language and literacy services to more than a thousand adults and children from over 60 countries now living in our community. The Council also continues to fulfill its historical mission of tutoring to homegrown Americans who need help to improve their reading or writing skills.