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Our Vision

"We envision a Flint and Genesee County where children enter kindergarten ready to learn, children are successful in school, students are prepared for post-secondary education, and adults earn a liveable wage because low literacy rates are no longer a barrier."

 

Our Mission

"The mission of Flint and Genesee Literacy Network is to seek out, convene, align, and build capacity in partners who improve the lives of individuals, children, and families of Flint and Genesee County by radically raising literacy levels."

 

Our Guiding Principles

 

We are a unique umbrella organization of many partners

We work as a passionate ally for our partners and community , identifying gaps in service delivery, supporting program assessments and bringing together the best literacy resources in the county. We develop and mobilize the strengths of our partners.

We support programs that contribute to multi-generational literacy and benefits of literacy across the entire lifespan

We recognize that true literacy comes from building learning skills of successive generations in families. We are fiercely committed to partners who work towards whole-family and long term outcomes over the lifespan of individuals.

Our understanding of literacy is multi-dimensional

We know that increasing literacy levels means strengthening skills related to reading, numeracy, digital technology, workforce readiness, and health and financial acumen. We help our partners address these essential life skills in a collaborative, integrative fashion.

We are committed to equity and inclusion 

We address the impact of institutional racism, poverty, and limited access to opportunity in our community. We value all people irrespective of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, age, language, disability, family background, income, or citizenship. We support programs and partners throughout Genesee County with a purposeful focus on vulnerable learners and areas of greatest need.

We build capacity in our partners, but do not deliver programs 

We believe that the best role we can play is to coordinate and mobilize partners that offer program delivery themselves. We offer technical assistance and promote peer-to-peer learning so that our partners can provide the best service possible to the community.

We are fully committed to data-driven assessment of our work

We systematically seek quantifiable and credible proof of the value of our efforts. We help our partners establish outcome targets and strengthen program measurements.

We are a Strategic Investment that maximizes funders' dollars

We believe that our commitments to alignment and collaboration increase the impacts of all of our funders' contributions and decrease competition for limited resources.

Literacy Landscape

“As champions for literacy, we must share a common understanding of the challenges our community faces in order to be truly effective agents of change in today's landscape!"

The Flint community has been managing a variety of challenges for many years: a declining population, lack of access to healthy foods, and cuts to state funding for education. All of these issues have adversely affected community literacy in Flint and Genesee County, leading to troubling outcomes. Coupled with the exacerbating effects of the Flint Water Crisis, our community was forced to respond to the profound outpouring of local and national support for Flint’s children exposed to lead. As Flint continues to recover and rise from the water crisis, it seems we’re at a point where we should take a big-picture look at where we stand — and set our sights on where we want to be.

  • We understand that all children and youth deserve to live in communities where they can learn, play, and grow yet, according to The Annie E. Casey Foundation, 60.5% of children in the City of Flint live below the poverty threshold. Sources: (U.S. Census Bureau
  • Without a strong foundation in reading children are left behind at the beginning of their education. By “third-grade reading is especially important because, by fourth grade, children are expected to read to learn” - Ruth Mott Foundation. In the City of Flint, only 10.9% of 3rd Grade students are performing at or above proficiency in English/Language Arts on the Michigan Student Test of Educational Progress (M-STEP).Sources: (MI School Data
  • “High-quality college and career readiness programming help young people acquire a well-rounded education that builds both academic knowledge as well as nonacademic skills” - C.S. Mott Foundation. Less than 5% of students in the City of Flint are considered to be college-ready based on the reports from Michigan's Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT).  Sources: (MI School Data
  • While unemployment has declined, Flint continues to exhibit an unemployment rate greater than state and national averages, revealing that 8.4% of residents in the City of Flint are experiencing unemployment and are at risk for unhealthy socioeconomic impacts, according to the Greater Flint Health Coalition. Sources: (Bureau of Labor Statistics)

Fortunately, FGLN partners are now re-emerging on the other side of the crisis, able to deepen our focus on literacy. Our community-building efforts before the Water Crisis gave us a strong foundation, as we were better organized, experienced, and already working together. As a result of all of these factors, our literacy work has more momentum now than ever before, and the silver lining of the water crisis is that our community is more aligned, driven, and resilient. The average person sees the benefit of offering quality literacy programming at scale, and we know that investments in literacy will play a critical role in ensuring that Flint children have the resources and support they need to live healthy and happy lives, post-Water Crisis.  

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