Literacy Coalition of Palm Beach County

The Love of Literacy Luncheon began as the annual awareness and fundraising event for the Coalition with speakers through the years such as Former First Lady Barbara Bush, Danny Glover, Henry Winkler, Wally Amos, Walter Anderson, LeVar Burton, Retired Senator Paul Simon, Sean Astin, Melissa Gilbert, Ben Carson, Ann Patchett, Byron Pitts, Linda Wirthheimer, Pat Conroy, and Brad Meltzer.[13]

Loop the Lake for Literacy is a fundraising and advocacy event hosted by the Literacy Coalition of Palm Beach County. Participating bike riders follow a course along Lake Okeechobee's outer banks. The ride is one of the Literacy Coalition's most successful fundraising events.[14]

The American Girl Fashion Show is an event which raises money for the Literacy Coalition of Palm Beach County's education programs tailored to children, youth, and adults. Models provide an educational look at how generations of American Girls have used clothing to express their own unique style and personality.[15]

The Outreach Program promotes adult literacy programmes and recruits adult learners and volunteer tutors throughout Palm Beach County. Adults who require basic literacy skills, English proficiency, and/or subject mastery in order to pass the GED test are targeted.[16] In partnership with the School District of Palm Beach County, the Palm Beach County Library System Adult Literacy Project and a number of community-based organizations, the Literacy Coalition connects adult learners and volunteer tutors with local literacy programs.[17]

Budding Readers is an early literacy program that matches three-year-old children at child care centers with a Reading Partner for a weekly one-to-one interactive reading session. Reading Partners are intended to nurture the blossoming of these "budding readers" into lifelong lovers of books, reading and learning as they work with them to develop the early literacy skills they will need for future success in school.[18] As of 2012, 16 Reading Partners at partnership sites served 417 children, 91 percent of the children demonstrated development in early literacy skills needed for future success in school and 4,917 books were distributed to children to begin a home library.[19]

The Workplace and Community Education Program provides customized instruction for adults who need help improving their English language skills, obtaining a GED or addressing specific workplace needs. Classes are provided at workplace and community sites throughout the county by trained adult education instructors.[20] Classes are tailored to each particular site and the skill levels of the students. The adult students, who attend classes twice a week, develop literacy skills to prepare them for enhanced employment opportunities and/or future education.[21]

To involve 10,000 - 20,000 adults throughout Palm Beach County in reading the same book at the same time.[22] This community reading campaign will entice adults who can read, but often don't, to get involved in the habit of reading again. It will also promote community dialogue and engagement as citizens gather together to discuss key themes. Former Governor Jeb Bush wrote to every city in Florida and encouraged them to form "One Book, One Community" reading campaigns based on the Palm Beach County model.[23] Read Together Palm Beach County produced a handbook on how to conduct a similar reading campaign and Former Governor Bush urged municipalities to use this book to guide them in their campaigns.[24] Participants include businesses, libraries, chambers of commerce, municipalities, local book clubs, neighborhood associations and many other groups.

The Literacy Coalition, in conjunction with Prime Time Palm Beach County, both of which receive significant funding from the Children's Services Council of Palm Beach County, encourage afterschool programs across Palm Beach County to participate with their own on-site celebrations of how bystanders can make a difference when it comes to bullying.[25]