*Goodwill VISTA* Volunteer and Outreach Coordination VISTA

The mission of Literacy Volunteers of Franklin and Somerset Counties is to promote literacy in our community while empowering adults through learner-based tutoring in reading, writing, math, and technology. We are the sole service provider in our region with infrastructure offering free, accessible, and quality individualized adult education services to specifically meet the needs of people with lower literacy levels. Our tutoring programs include tutor training, in-person and virtual individualized tutoring services for adult literacy learners, weekly hybrid classes for adult literacy learners, and community collaborations bringing literacy centered activities to the existing programming of local service organizations. Impacting 300 adults in 2024, our community literacy programming includes events, an annual poetry contest, and a book sharing program in which volunteers accept, sort, and distribute donated books through fifteen free bookshelves in the community and monthly book give away events. LVFSC¿s Book Sharing program is uniquely situated to support increased adult, community, and family literacy in Franklin County by first and foremost providing free books to the community, with almost 6,000 provided in 2024. We not only share free books in the community ¿ we also use our book sharing program as a platform to share the importance of adult literacy in overall community wellbeing. LVFSC¿s Book Sharing and Adult Literacy programming work together to end both generational low literacy and generational poverty. Learn more at https://www.westernmaineliteracy.org/