Walmart Foundation awards $550,000 grant to West Michigan Strategic Alliance to improve literacy

Sharon Hanks

At a time when uneducated West Michigan adults are struggling with unemployment, the Walmart Foundation has come forward with a $550,000 private grant to help them improve their literacy and hopefully land jobs.

The Walmart Foundation awarded the grant to the West Michigan Strategic Alliance to expand its pilot adult literacy program in Kent County into Ottawa and Muskegon counties. The funds will be spread out over two years starting this fall in a program called "West Michigan Literacy to Work" initiative to teach at least 250 illiterate adults the basic skills they need to land decent jobs offering a living wage.

"We're very excited about it," says WMSA president Greg Northrup about the award for the program. "There are about 130,000 adults 25 years and older in West Michigan who are unable to be, in a literacy sense, successful in meeting the minimum requirements for most jobs because they can't read, they can't do math, they can't follow (written) instructions.

"In the past, in the old economy, people without a (high school) degree could be successful. But our economy has transitioned. It's been very difficult for these people to compete. We're very thankful to Walmart for recognizing the good work we're doing in West Michigan and their willingness to invest in us."

Most individuals participating in the new program are expected to enroll as referrals from Michigan Works!, area community colleges and high school adult education programs, Northrup says. The program should be a big help for individuals who do not qualify for educational opportunities through Michigan's No Worker Left Behind program, he adds.

To launch the program, WMSA plans a collaborative effort with four area community colleges to pattern the outreach after a similar literacy program it piloted earlier in Kent County called "Making College Accessible" to help displaced workers. Hopes are to eventually expand the program to serve the entire WMSA eight-county area.

The Walmart grant is among seven awarded by the foundation to help Americans get back to work. The foundation selected seven non-profit organizations after asking 24 applicants nationwide to submit requests for the grants totaling $3.4 million.

Walmart Foundation President Margaret McKenna is quoted in a news release as stating: "we are looking for ways to provide opportunities for those who are out of work and facing tough times. These grants will support people across the country to gain the necessary life and job skills to obtain long-term employment."


Sources: Walmart Foundation of Bentonville, Ark. and Greg Northrup, president of West Michigan Strategic Alliance of Grand Rapids.

Sharon Hanks is innovations and jobs news editor at Rapid Growth Media. Please send story ideas and comments for the column to Sharon at [email protected]. She also is owner of The Write Words in Grand Rapids.