Literacy Volunteers of Stamford/Greenwich Merges with Family Centers

Literacy Volunteers of Stamford/Greenwich has merged with Family Centers, the education and human services agency based in Greenwich.

“Literacy Volunteers has been a critical component of what we deliver to individuals in the public housing work we’re doing in Stamford and Greenwich, and our general vocation program to improve employability,” said Bob Arnold, Family Centers chief executive.

“Our staffs were comfortable with one another and our programs work well together.”

According to Arnold, the two agencies began merger discussions about a year ago to “look at the possibility of working more closely together.”

Arnold explained the merger will help Literacy Volunteers focus more on its work to help non-English speaking residents learn reading and writing skills as well as job training, without the administrative overhead. 

“Literacy Volunteers is a relatively small organization with a $400,000 annual budget.  Family Centers has about $12 million budget this year. Literacy Volunteers is more like a Family Center’s program,” Arnold said.

“One of the struggles they’ve had is there is a lot of demand … to work with regulatory groups, provide overhead, management and leadership levels. It’s hard to grow or project your programs further when the core administration is small.”

Arnold added, “Our expectation is the merger will lower cost of operating Literacy Volunteers and free up resources to be able to serve more people.”

Nearly 200 volunteers offer free literacy, job skills training, English language instruction, computer classes, financial literacy services and adult education services to more than 500 Fairfield County residents each year.

Literacy Volunteers will continue operating in their main office until in the Inspirica building on Franklin Street in Stamford until the end of July when the staff of six full- and part-time employees will move to Family Center’s Stamford office at 60 Palmers Hill Rd. 

“This partnership is very exciting, as our programs are a wonderful complement to Family Centers’,” John Raffaelli, chairman of Literacy Volunteers of Stamford/Greenwich’s Board of Directors, said in a statement. “Since Literacy Volunteers has a longstanding history of working with Family Centers, this transition is expected to be seamless for both our staff and our clients.”

Arnold said Literacy Volunteers will continue “providing literacy services out in the community, in community centers, libraries, churches,  public housing complexes” in Stamford, Greenwich and Darien. “The only change is to get them out even more so they’re accessible to everyone.”

Arnold said he expects the program will be expanded to serve more area residents. “We have increasing population of non-English (speaking) population of individuals moving into lower Fairfield County and that is the largest single user group of Literacy Volunteers,” Arnold said.

“The only change (with the merger) is to get them out even more and more accessible to everyone,” Arnold said.

Volunteers receive 15 hours of training from certified instructors before going out into the community to help residents.

For information about becoming a volunteer, contact Lucia Cook at 203-324-5214 or email: lec@lvsg.org.