Hope CommUnity Center Receives $8,000 Grant from the Dollar General Literacy Foundation to Support Adult Literacy
Apopka, FL – June 2021 – The Dollar General Literacy Foundation recently awarded Hope CommUnity Center an $8,000 grant to support adult literacy. This local grant is part of the Dollar General Literacy Foundation’s recent award of $10.5 million donations to support summer, family, and adult literacy programs, representing the organization’s largest one-day grant donation in its 28-year history.
“I feel very blessed for the English classes at Hope as they have been a huge help for me. I went from feeling I didn’t know any English to confidently using the English skills I’ve learned in the MOMS group.”
-Gilda, MOMS participant
This grant will serve two groups of students: First, a group of approximately 50 mothers, all Spanish speakers, with varying degrees of literacy in Spanish and English, who will gain basic literacy skills in Spanish and English and increase their confidence in speaking English. Second, the grant will serve another 100 adults in Hope CommUnity Center’s evening ESL classes, helping people feel more comfortable and confident speaking English. Many of these ESL students are part of Hope CommUnity Center’s Pathways to Citizenship program which helps prepare people for the U.S. Naturalization exam to become U.S. citizens. The primary focus of the Adult Strong program is improving adult literacy and language skills.
“For nearly 30 years, the Dollar General Literacy Foundation has been proud to invest in literacy and education programs in our hometown communities,” said Denine Torr, executive director of the Dollar General Literacy Foundation. “The recent and significant shifts in the educational landscape have made the Foundation’s mission more critically important. As we work to create access to high-quality instruction for all individuals, we share our gratitude for the educators who are working to uplift and empower others. We hope these funds will have a meaningful impact on students and teachers across the country and look forward to seeing the positive impact they have on learners.”
The Dollar General Literacy Foundation supports organizations that increase access to educational programming, stimulate and enable innovation in the delivery of educational instruction and inspire a love of reading. Each year, the Dollar General Literacy Foundation awards funds to nonprofit organizations, schools, and libraries within a 15-mile radius of a Dollar General store or distribution center to support adult, family, summer, and youth literacy programs. The Foundation also offers a student referral program for individuals interested in learning how to read, speak English, or prepare for the high school equivalency exam. Referrals to a local organization that provides free literacy services are available online here or through referral cards found in the Learn to Read brochures that are available at the cash register of every Dollar General store.
About Hope CommUnity Center:
Hope CommUnity Center is a service learning community dedicated to the empowerment of Central Florida’s immigrant and working poor communities through education, advocacy and spiritual growth.
About the Dollar General Literacy Foundation
The Dollar General Literacy Foundation is proud to support initiatives that help others improve their lives through literacy and education. Since 1993, the Foundation has awarded more than $197 million in grants, helping more than 14 million individuals take their first steps toward literacy, a general education diploma or English proficiency. Cal Turner, Jr. founded the Dollar General Literacy Foundation to honor his grandfather and Dollar General’s co-founder, J.L. Turner, who was functionally illiterate having dropped out of school in the third grade to support his family. The Foundation aims to provide support to schools, libraries and nonprofit organizations that seek to improve adult, summer, youth and family literacy initiatives. To learn more about the Dollar General Literacy Foundation, visit www.dgliteracy.org.
# # #
