2014 Winners & Honorees

Library of Congress Literacy Awards Best Practices 2014 (PDF, 5.92 MB)

Winners

David M. Rubenstein Prize

Room to Read seeks to transform the lives of millions of children in Asia and Africa by focusing on literacy and gender equality in education. Working in collaboration with local communities, partner organizations and governments, Room to Read develops literacy skills and a habit of reading among primary school children and ensures girls have the skills and support needed to complete their secondary education.

American Prize

SMART, a program of the Oregon Children’s foundation, matches volunteer tutors with children from pre-K to third grade. The students meet one-on-one with the tutors twice a week for seven months to share books, and learn and experience the joy of reading. At the end of the program the child has received 14 new books to keep, as well as 28 hours of individualized volunteer attention.

International Prize

The Mother Child Education Foundation in Turkey operates a variety of projects designed to address family, adult and early-childhood literacy. One of these, the Functional Adult Literacy Program, a women’s empowerment initiative, uses volunteer instructors to teach basic adult literacy and has been adopted as a model by the Ministry of National Education. Other successful projects include the Mother Child Education Program, a national literacy hotline to connect learners with services, and the Web Based Literacy Program targeting rural learners.

Honorees

Addressing Social Barriers to Literacy

• Dollywood Imagination Library
• Pratham Books
• Literacy Volunteers of Greater Hartford

Increasing Motivation to Read and Write

• Rural Education and Development Nepal (READ Nepal)
• Power Poetry
• California Library Literacy Services

Ensuring Quality of Instruction

• Parent-Child Home Program
• Reading Partners
• Literacy Assistance Center

Increasing Awareness of the Problem of Illiteracy

• Beanstalk
• Proliteracy
• Reading and Writing Foundation

Promoting Gender Equity and Maternal Literacy

• Lost Boys Rebuilding South Sudan—Literacy at the Well
• Dr. A. V. Baliga Memorial Trust