Proliteracy hires Environics Communications as new national public relations agency

Environics to raise awareness of adult literacy Crisis in U.S. as more than 32-million U.S. adults cannot read at eighth-grade level or complete a job application

Washington, January 26, 2009 – ProLiteracy, the nation's largest nonprofit working to address the adult literacy crisis in the U.S., has retained Environics Communications as the organization's national public relations agency.

Thirty-two-million U.S. adults older than 16 – or 14 percent of the U.S. adult population – cannot read a newspaper article written at the eighth-grade level or complete a job application. Additionally, it is estimated that illiteracy costs American businesses more than $60-million each year in lost productivity and health and safety issues.

Environics will work with ProLiteracy to raise awareness of this adult literacy crisis and how the organization champions the power of literacy to improve lives, families, communities and societies.

"The crisis of adult literacy is rapidly getting worse, due largely to a lack of government funding for basic adult education and literacy programs," said ProLiteracy President and CEO David Harvey. "We look forward to working with Environics to raise awareness in Washington and nationwide of this critical issue."

"Now more than ever, our government and our society need to commit resources and take action to help adults get the literacy skills they need," said Dave Groobert, general manager of Environics' U.S. operations. "We're pleased to have been selected by ProLiteracy to work on such a timely and important issue."

About ProLiteracy

ProLiteracy works with adult new readers and learners in partnership with local, national, and international organizations, providing training, professional development, and advocacy. It also develops and distributes materials used to instruct adults in reading, writing, math, and English as a second language through its publishing division, New Readers Press. ProLiteracy has member programs in all 50 states and the District of Columbia and works with 125 nongovernmental international agencies. For more information, please go to www.proliteracy.org and www.newreaderspress.com.