Literacy

From its inception, at its core, RELAY has emphatically promoted literacy. There are four ways to learn: by observation, through listening, by  reading, and through experience.  Of these methods, reading is paramount in that it develops the quickest, most efficient and least costly way to expand ones knowledge based on a multitude of subjects. It is critical to encourage literacy into youngsters’ repertoire of skills early on. It bares a pivotal influence on the ongoing development of the juvenile intellect.

Thus, it was by no mere accident that during the late 1980’s and early 1990’s when RELAY could not afford the vital equipment necessary to continue operations, RELAY forged a relationship with the Greensboro City Library. RELAY was granted authorization to issue out official library cards that could be used immediately at any city library. In addition to that feat, RELAY further prioritized literacy by purchasing and distributing over 6,000 new books to children 3-14 years of age. Thereafter, at least once a month (sometimes every other week) we invited children to appear on our TV telecast to give book reports to the community.  

In the future, we envision adopting a virtual library, allowing students to flourish in the technology that has become native to their generation. Additionally, literacy has taken on a new meaning. The world is multilingual and those who are only literate in English, will find themselves limited. Furthermore, we have to expand our view of language. While languages once referred to an expression of dialect , it has now expanded into technology. Our future generation will need to become literate in programming languages such as C#, JavaScript, and Python.