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Reading at Risk
 "Literary reading in America is not only declining rapidly among all groups, but the rate of decline has accelerated, especially among the young." 
Issued by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and spanning over a 20-year period, this report focuses on the important and active roles that readers play in their communities, and sounds an alarm that the overall number of readers is declining.
The NEA has launched a national initiative, "The Big Read," to "revitalize the role of literature in American society," and, "to bring the transformative power of reading into the lives of Americans." Click here for more information.
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In the Chattahoochee Valley, the recent Community Assets and Critical Issues Assessment highlighted persistent poverty as the biggest challenge facing our eight-county area, with 7.5% of our population (and 7.4% of those in Muscogee County) living at or below half of the Federal Poverty Line. This halfway line represents an annual income of less than $9,300 for a family of four. Education levels, particularly among those living in poverty, lag behind state and national levels. Programs that successfully promote early literacy have been shown to result in better long-term educational outcomes.Three local literacy initiatives hold particular promise for engaging children and their families in learning at an early age: 
We also invite you to read the Reading at Risk study and link to NEA's The Big Read to learn more about how this issue is being addressed nationally.
You can share this information with your friends and colleagues by clicking the email option at the top of each of our Web pages. And if you really want to make a difference, we invite you to give online to the initiative(s) of your choice (we'll let you know about the difference your donation is making by sending you an email report).
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