Verizon Sponsors Groundbreaking At-Work Employee Literacy Volunteer Training

New Jersey Corporations work with Literacy Volunteers of America-New Jersey, a non-profit organization, to improve the literacy of adults throughout the state. It's a win-win situation. Corporate employees get to know their community better and build stronger communities by helping those in need.

(PRWEB) July 17, 2003 -- New Jersey Corporations work with Literacy Volunteers of America-New Jersey, a non-profit organization, to improve the literacy of adults throughout the state. It's a win-win situation. Corporate employees get to know their community better and build stronger communities by helping those in need.

Seventeen dedicated Verizon employees have spent the past five weeks learning how to become literacy tutors for adults in their communities. Soon these new Literacy Volunteers will be matched with students in six different counties and will help their students to read, write, speak and understand English better. Literacy Volunteers of America- New Jersey (LVA-NJ) developed this new corporate tutor training workshop through a $25,000 grant from the Verizon Foundation. The employee training took place at the Verizon facility in Somerset.

Verizon leads New Jersey employers in providing this kind of volunteer opportunity for its employees. Dave Lewis, Executive Director of Verizon Information Services in New Jersey, jumped at the chance to take part in the program. I know that when my employees get involved in the community, it helps them not only to know the needs of their community better, but it makes them better employees as well," he explains. Currently, more than two million adults in New Jersey lack the literacy skills needed to do tasks that many of us take for granted-read a book to a child, read a prescription label, follow written instructions at work, or read an article in the local newspaper. Low literacy hurts New Jersey families, schools, and businesses.

Literacy Volunteers work to fight low literacy throughout the state. Verizons employee volunteers join over 2,500 Literacy Volunteers statewide who tutored more than 5,000 students last year alone. Using well-trained volunteers to improve the literacy skills within the population is a cost effective way of combating the effects of low literacy.

LVA-NJ aims to help all New Jersey residents develop the skills needed to be productive in the twenty-first century.Companies or individuals who want to provide an opportunity for their employees to become volunteer literacy tutors may contact LVA-NJ at 800-848-0048.