Norristown Nonprofit Spotlight: Literacy Council Of Norristown

Nonprofit: Literacy Council of Norristown

Founder: Katharine Dosch

Founded: 1984

Executive Director: Theresa Oliver

Website: Lcnlit.org

Address: 113 East Airy Street, Norristown

Norristown is filled with an abundance of nonprofit organizations that are working to make our neighborhoods safer, stronger, and more educated.

The Norristown Men of Excellence, EDU19401, the Carver Center, and the Norristown Project are just a few examples of the outstanding organizations working to improve the community in wide variety of ways, from education and environmental awareness to youth empowerment.

The Literary Council of Norristown is one such organization, working to improve reading skills and literacy in the area.

The head of their website quotes a Chinese proverb that seems fitting not just for their work, but for all nonprofit endeavors:

“Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.”

The Council has been lighting a candle for illiteracy in the borough since 1984, when Katharine Dosch and Margaret Geary represented the First Presbyterian Church of Norristown at a meeting of the Norristown Ministerium that focused on literacy, according to their website.

They began training tutors soon thereafter, and received a grant from the state in 1986. By the end of ’86, they had 67 tutors aboard.

In 1990, they started teaching English as a second language classes.

And a quarter-century later, they’re still going strong, offering day and evening classes, organizing fundraiser 5k’s for charity, and sending out over 60 tutors in the surrounding area to improve - and provide - basic reading skills.

“Helping someone raise their level of English literacy can enable them to do things that the literate native speaker takes for granted,” their website reads. “Imagine not being able to read to your child or help them with their homework, not being able to fill out an application, not being able to understand a doctor’s instructions, or not being able to read a map.”

The Council is always looking for new tutors. Their next tutor training workshop is on September 9 at their East Airy Street Location from 4:30 p.m. until 6 p.m. Click here to register.

Do you have a business or a nonprofit, or know of one, that deserves the spotlight? Email [email protected].

Image of Reverend and Katharine Dosch in 2012 courtesy of the Literacy Council of Norristown.