[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 120 (Monday, September 10, 2012)]
[Senate]
[Page S6053]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        RECOGNIZING PROLITERACY

 Mrs. GILLIBRAND. Mr. President, today I wish to recognize 
ProLiteracy, the world's oldest and largest member organization of 
adult literacy and basic education programs in the United States 
representing more than 1,100 community-based organizations and adult 
basic education programs, which collectively serve more than 286,000 
adult learners.
  For more than 50 years, ProLiteracy has been headquartered in a 
suburbanized industrial park in Syracuse, New York. Now, ProLiteracy is 
moving to the Near West Side of Syracuse. The renovated building is an 
environmentally and technologically advanced facility that allows the 
organization to produce and test new and better curricula and 
educational materials, as well as to develop and implement local 
training, technical assistance, and professional development projects. 
The knowledge, best practices, and key findings ProLiteracy will 
generate through these efforts will be shared locally, nationally, and 
globally.
  Because ProLiteracy's headquarters will be located in an area readily 
accessible to adult learners, the organization is providing learning 
experiences such as an adult literacy library housing New Readers Press 
materials and other resources.
  ProLiteracy is to be commended for the work they do and the efforts 
they support every day to help increase the quality of and access to 
adult literacy services. An estimated 30 million adults nationwide do 
not yet have the basic literacy skills to read or write above a fifth-
grade level. An additional 60 million American adults do not read or 
write better than the eighth-grade level. Every day, ProLiteracy works 
to enable these Americans to receive the necessary resources and skills 
they need to succeed in postsecondary education, occupational training, 
and establishing a career pathway.
  Thank you to ProLiteracy for being the leader in ending the adult 
literacy crisis in Syracuse, New York--and in communities around the 
Nation.

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