Augusta Community to Celebrate a Literacy Program That Gets Results, Earns National Attention

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – A 3-year-old community literacy project in the city of Augusta, Ark., will be celebrated on the National Day of Writing, Tuesday, Oct. 20, at 10:30 a.m. at the Little Rock Club, on the 30^th floor of the Regions Bank Building in Little Rock.

The Augusta Community Literacy Advocacy Project is a joint effort by White River Rural Health Center Inc. and the University of Arkansas. The White River Rural Health Center has 22 clinics serving 18 communities, with primary care services in 10 Arkansas counties. The corporation is based in Augusta.

Augusta is the county seat of Woodruff County, which, like most of the Delta region, has experienced population and economic decline in recent years. In 2006 the city’s population was down to 2,648 people, about a 15 percent drop since 2000. In an effort to stimulate new growth, White River Rural Health Center began identifying ways to assist the towns in their service area. In Augusta they expected the public to say they needed new businesses and jobs.

 “What we realized they really wanted was to have a more educated workforce available for current and new businesses,” said Joy Lynn Bowen, the center’s education director. “I graduated from Augusta High School and was a teacher for 25 years in Augusta, so it was natural for me to want to get involved to help with this project.”

That involvement led Bowen to contact David Jolliffe, who holds the Brown Chair in English Literacy at the University of Arkansas, and who was looking for opportunities to work on just this sort of project. Jolliffe made a somewhat unusual proposal.

“I suggested that if they wanted a more educated work force literacy was the key factor, and to improve literacy — reading and writing — that they had to look at more than the schools,” said Jolliffe. “They needed to involve folks from all walks of life in Augusta and convince them of the importance of reading and writing in the 21st-century economy.” 

“He was talking about literacy from the cradle to the grave,” said Bowen. “It was a fantastic idea, and he has been so active in helping us find ways to make it happen.”

The Augusta Community Literacy Advocacy Project was born in 2006. Bowen leads the project, and for the past three years she and Jolliffe have worked together looking for opportunities to involve local people in reading and writing projects.

“We've had young mothers learning how to create literacy-friendly environments in their homes for pre-school and school kids; we've had innovative reading and writing projects in the elementary and secondary schools,” said Jolliffe, who teaches in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences. “A veteran’s memorial will be unveiled soon in Augusta, so we had citizens write stories about Woodruff County veterans for a volume of pieces that we'll publish in conjunction with that event. We've had young people and senior citizens in churches collaboratively writing stories — "Pillars of the Church" stories, we call them — about how long the seniors have been attending their church, what changes they've seen, why they keep coming, what they see and hope for the future of their church. The response has been tremendous.”

“We’re trying to be the town that reads and writes,” said Bowen.

The project already appears to be having results.

In 2006, before the project started, 48 students graduated from Augusta High School; only 22 took the ACT, and only six went to college. In 2009, 23 of the 29 seniors who graduated from Augusta High were accepted to college, and they earned over $202,000 in scholarship money. The Woodruff County Literacy Council stands ready with more than 19 tutors eager to assist adults with reading and math, and the Woodruff County Library is one of the top rural libraries in the state. Computer access is available to residents at the library and in two computer cafés run by White River Rural Health Center.

That kind of improvement earned some national attention.

Last year, the International Consortium for Electronic Portfolio Research, based in Washington, D.C., learned of the project. The consortium’s previous projects have examined the uses of electronic portfolios in writing programs, academic affairs and student affairs offices, and technology education.

“The consortium approached me and asked if we would be interested in having Augusta be the subject for the first-ever community electronic portfolio,” said Jolliffe. “I jumped at the chance. A prototype is up and we're adding to it regularly. We envision the community portfolio as a place for people to read what has been written, and for citizens to place their own writing, where people can reflect on it, to discuss issues raised in it, and hopefully respond with their own writing. It will truly be an online meeting place.”

“My big dream is that Augusta will be a literacy hub,” said Bowen. “That we’ll be able to share our resources and what we’ve learned with other communities to help them with projects like this.”

The portfolio Web site is at http://www.augustaportfolio.com.

 The National Council of Teachers of English has designated Oct. 20 as the National Day of Writing and is urging schools and communities throughout the U.S. to build galleries of writing of all kind: from essays and stories to letters and recipes. Augusta will mark the date with a double celebration.

“We've built a nice gallery in Augusta, and we have the Augusta Portfolio working online,” said Jolliffe. “On Oct. 20 we will have a big celebration to unveil them both. The Augusta Portfolio is the only one of its kind in the world. I think this project proves that the people of Augusta are just as unique.”