Good Neighbor Podcast: Auburn and Opelika
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Good Neighbor Podcast: Auburn and Opelika
Ep.#137: Patricia Butts, Lee County Literacy Coalition
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We sit down with Patricia Butts from the Lee County Literacy Coalition to unpack what adult literacy really means and why it shapes jobs, health, money, and family life. We also share how free tutoring works in Lee County, plus a fun fundraiser that helps keep these programs open to everyone.
• the coalition’s mission to grow adult and family literacy across Lee County
• one-to-one tutoring for reading, writing, math, and GED preparation
• ESL classes and an ESL book club that builds confidence through practice
• family literacy workshops that strengthen reading habits at home
• financial literacy, health literacy, and digital workplace literacy for real-life needs
• the Great Grown-Up Spelling Bee as a fundraiser and awareness event
• common misconceptions about adult learners and the real reasons people fall behind
• simple ways to volunteer, sign up for services, and meet in person or online
www.LeeCountyLiteracy.org
334-705-0001
Welcome To Good Neighbor Podcast
SPEAKER_00This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Suzanne Hodges.
SPEAKER_02Welcome. And with me is Patricia Butts, and she is with the Lee County Literacy Coalition. Welcome, Patricia.
SPEAKER_01Hi, thank you so much.
SPEAKER_02Well, tell me about your coalition. What are your guys', what is your mission and what are you trying to achieve?
Mission And Free Literacy Services
SPEAKER_01Well, our mission is to provide access to adults and families to literacy programs and services, you know, to strengthen the community, to make them be better able to assist their children, and also to improve their quality of life, getting jobs, improving their self-esteem, all of those things.
SPEAKER_02Well, what kind of services do you provide that encourages that?
SPEAKER_01Well, we offer one-to-one tutoring and reading, writing, math, and GD preparation. We also offer ESL classes and instruction to include our very popular ESL book club. We also have literacy workshops that include family literacy where we engage the entire family with different activities to increase their reading habits in the home and just to engage them to improve overall family literacy. We also have financial literacy that helps folks to get their budget and prepare to purchase a home. And we have health literacy, and then another popular workshop we offer is digital workplace literacy. And that's you know, navigating that smartphone or learning some computer programs so they can increase their computer literacy and also workshops in building that resume, job search strategies, and interview techniques. One last thing I'd like to add, we offer is just to add on is we do have a food pantry that's open once a month in the evening from five to seven, and that helps families to just a little extra to help them with their food budgets.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, normally when you hear the word literacy, you're thinking of reading, but my goodness, you are more than that. It's with financial and digital and all of those things. That's a really good service that you provide there. How do people usually find out about you?
SPEAKER_01Well, uh different ways. Word of mouth is always a good way. Um our other nonprofit uh supporters, our community partners, different faith-based organizations and civic groups can share. And we also have a really good uh social media presence where we share with the community what's happening, and then those community agencies share what we have to offer as well. And we meet and do presentations to the local DHR offices and other um areas, and we're in the community as well with our tabling at different um events um like the National Night Out that's about to come up, and um events like um the um Auburn City Fest, um those sorts of things. We're we are there.
Great Grown-Up Spelling Bee Fundraiser
SPEAKER_02Well, before we started, you were telling me about an event that's coming up, the um Great Grown-Up Spelling Bay. Tell me about that event. That sounds like fun.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it is fun. Actually, it's fun for the adults. Um, most people think, oh my goodness, spelling that's hard. But it's actually um actually it's uh uh an event that was uh before my time, but we we have brought it back and it's so much fun. It's a fundraiser where we um raise funds to support, and it's also an awareness event. So there are teams, the different community um businesses can support us by uh uh sponsoring a team, and the regular community can you know purchase a ticket and come out and watch. So teams of two do like a valet of a quick spelling speed. Um, and our um last year's champions were um the Southern Union um community college. So we encourage uh businesses or families or friends that want to be a team and come out and have fun. We've got uh Wilton's Catering that will host us with some really delicious food, and we also have uh Emerald Um uh John Emerald Distillery that's gonna make some cocktails and mocktails for us, so we're excited about that.
SPEAKER_02So uh when is it?
SPEAKER_01That's August the 27th. Um, it's going to be at the new nonprofit um the nonprofit center, Alabama. Very nice. Um, so we're excited to use that space and it's closer um to the community. So we're excited about that. So it's August the 27th on a Thursday at 6 p.m.
Patricia’s Path Into Literacy Work
SPEAKER_02Well, let's talk about you for a minute. Tell me about your career journey. How did you get into literacy? Hmm.
SPEAKER_01Well, um uh I've been my my mom actually, she was a head uh one of the first head start teachers back in the 60s. So reading and um I've been doing it probably learning when I was uh two or three years old. Um, and it's always been a part of me. Books going to the library. Um, but as I uh began my career, um, it's been of service. Um I hosted a book club back in Virginia where I'm from, and and and then working with the Department of Defense with military families. I was in Washington, D.C., and there was a position that tells you how I got to Alabama with the National Park Service. So I came down here actually in 2012 as a management analyst for the National Park Service, Tuskegee Airmen Institute in Selmeton-Montgomery. And I was a part of that 50th anniversary when Obama came here, and there was a uh the Park Service did a reenactment of that walk. And it actually shifted, you know, my life actually. When we came upon the the Capitol, um, it just made me, you know, realize that change is happening, and I wanted to be more rooted in the community. So I quit my federal job and got more involved in nonprofit and from domestic violence to uh Alabama Casa led me to Lee County uh Coalition, um Lee County uh literacy coalition, and I've been here for about seven years now, and we've been building access for adults and families to increase their literacy. As we've got about not 59 million adults in the United States are below the third grade level, and in Alabama is five to one, and in Lee County, there's over 30,000. So it may seem daunting, but it's it's here. This is what we do, but all of our services are free, and it feels like um, you know, we're not doing it in a vacuum. It takes um volunt all our wonderful volunteers, our staff, our board, and and our community partners that make all of this possible.
Misconceptions And Why Adults Struggle
SPEAKER_02So you've been doing this for your whole life. I'm sure you've come across some misconceptions that people have about literacy. What are some of those things that you've come across that just aren't true?
SPEAKER_01Sure. Most people think that folks that are struggling with their literacy are unintelligent, and that's not true. Actually, they're able to navigate things really amazingly throughout their life and to be able to um, you know, navigate very well doing that. So um that's one misconception that they're un so that's one feeling like um folks are unintelligent. Other thing about people who are struggling with their literacy, they're saying well, why didn't they already um why didn't they get it the first time around? Well, there are plenty of things. There's undiagnosed um learning disabilities, people leave school to help their families, or maybe they, you know, unplanned pregnancy, or it could be just um they were uh um, you know, social promotion, or they could have been an athlete. There's plenty of things that puts folks in positions where they're struggling a bit. Um, and we know that those folks that come to us for help, they're really ready to improve themselves and actually assist their families. Um, because when the adults, the best way to assist a child is to um support that adult because children's in homes with families that um advocate for reading and education, um, they actually um they actually show up better in in their school.
SPEAKER_02Well, what is one thing that you wish people knew about the Lee County Literacy Coalition that you'd like to uh get across?
SPEAKER_01Hmm. One thing is that it takes a community to make it successful, and um we need support, um, you know, as little as an hour a week can change the to the trajectory of a human being, um, you know, being becoming a donor or or of a giving of your talent to use some of the costs to make this happen. Um, literacy is just as we were talking about, it's that's just not about reading, it's about being able to read your um your subscription, your prescriptions from the doctor. It's able to read them, uh make sure you're taking them appropriately. Those are important. Understanding what you just signed at the at the um at your bank and understanding those types of things, being able to understand what you're reading when you vote, um, because some of that is a little legal ease about what you're voting, so you can understand. So literacy is just beyond um reading. Um, it's about you know your financial health. So you can make sure that you're not um a prey to lender predatory lending uh um organizations and they understand your credit card and preparing to own a home. So all those things um matter. Um so I would know.
SPEAKER_02It's just the basics of navigating life as you should, and uh absolutely.
How To Get Help Or Volunteer
SPEAKER_02Well, how can uh people learn more about you? Maybe they want to get in touch with you to volunteer or to get involved in some way. What are some good ways to reach out?
SPEAKER_01Sure, they can first you can always go to our website, www.leecountyliteracy.org. And for those of you that don't have a email, you can there's a chat bar there, and we uh monitor that and get back to you really quickly whether you're interested in a workshop, interested in becoming a tutor, or even gaining a tutor. Um, so it's a really simple process for those volunteers out there, it's just an hour a week, maybe an hour and a half if you're commuting, um, to and then we make sure we take you through a basic tutor training also that you can take that on an e-learning um platform. And then for the learners, if you've been struggling and you're like, I'll do it, I'll do it, come on and do it. Just all it takes is a phone call. You can call us at 334-705-0001, and we can take that intake on uh over the phone, or you can do it um via our chatbot on our website, or you can walk into the office, and we're located at 505 West Thompson Circle, across from the Achievement Center, but on the campus of uh East Alabama Health, one of another one of our partners. So that's the way you can get in contact. You can walk in, you can see us. All of our services are at no cost to any person who's interested. Um, and the thing about us that's a little bit different is we pair our learners and tutors based on their availability. So if a learner is available Tuesdays at 2.30, we find a tutor that is available at Tuesdays at 2.30 so that they can meet and be successful together. And that makes the the retention of that learner to meet. So we try to meet um when everybody is is on the same accord. And another option we offer is virtual meeting like we're doing now via Zoom or via um a platform. We offer that to our tutors and learners. So if the tutor is away on vacation, of course they can have a vacation, but if they still want to meet with that tutor, they can join virtually, and the tutor can come to our office and join at our office, or they both can join virtually. So we make uh we move some of the barriers of transportation or maybe child care or um you know, just immobile at the at that moment because we want to make sure we're always offering access to someone so that we don't stall their progress.
Thanks And Community Nominations
SPEAKER_02Well, that's wonderful. It sounds like y'all do an excellent job there. Thank you so much for joining me, Patricia. I've enjoyed learning about you and the Lee County Literacy Coalition. Thank you for joining us. You're so welcome.
SPEAKER_01Thank you.
SPEAKER_00Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast Auburn. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to GNP Auburn.com. That's GNP Auburn.com or call three three four four two nine seven four zero.