Our Impact

2,000+

Career Navigator Referrals

200%

Increase in Membership

10,000+

Constituents Engaged

  • This year, we’ve doubled our membership, provided over 2,000 career referrals, and engaged over 10,000 constituents. Keep reading to learn more about our growth and our impact in digital literacy, membership, and American Job Center services.

Thank You

A note from our Executive Director, Becky Raymond

Fiscal year 2022 (July 1, 2021 - June 30, 2022) was a transformational year for us - it’s the year that we doubled on our membership, supported more organizations in promoting digital literacy than ever before, connected more individuals across Chicago to education and job training programs - it’s the year that we changed our name!

We know that none of this is possible without your continued support. Personally, I want to thank our dedicated board, talented staff and generous stakeholders–it is a pleasure to work toward our mission alongside you. I am so grateful for your personal investment in scaleLIT’s work, and I look forward to what we'll continue building together!

A New Path Forward

New name, same passion!

Chicago Citywide Literacy Coalition changed its name to scaleLIT in April. As our new name suggests, we are all in on helping organizations apply adult literacy tools and best practices to serve the community.

Welcoming new leadership

Please join us in welcoming our new Board President, Manny Rodriguez, the Executive Director at Revolution Workshop. In addition, Christa Hamilton, President and CEO of UCAN, is our new Board Secretary. We are excited to have their insight and energy as we move our organization forward.

We are also grateful for the continued commitment of Jessica Goble, Board Treasurer, and Carmen Kimble, Vice President, who will continue to promote scaleLIT’s mission through their service. Thank you to all of our board members for your dedication!

Digital Literacy

#1

Innovation of the Year

50+

Organizations on Northstar

1,000+

Northstar Certifications

  • This year, we joined the Chicago Digital Equity Council to help expand access to digital resources across the city. As a result, the team began working with new partners who are serving the hardest to reach populations, especially on the south and west sides of Chicago.

    We worked with a broader network than ever before, and as a result we were able to increase the amount of organizations using scaleLIT’s Northstar Digital Literacy platform from 30 to over 50 organizations. We’ve also expanded the use of Northstar through partnership with Kids First/Chicago Connected. As a result, we helped over 1,000 learners earn certificates through Northstar’s learning platform.

    scaleLIT added capacity for our members by bringing on an additional Digital Literacy Navigator and AmeriCorps VISTA member, who hosted office hours twice each week to answer Northstar questions and shared best practices to participating organizations on an on-going/as needed basis.

    In our Digital Learning Lab, we saw more participation than ever before, with 30 educators from across the state coming onboard On April 13 the Coalition on Adult Basic Education presented scaleLIT’s Digital Learning Lab with the Outstanding State Innovation of the Year award. Our article, “Empowering Educators to Advance Digital Efficacy Through Classroom Innovations: The Illinois Digital Learning Lab'' was featured in the COABE journal as well.

    “ScaleLIT has played a crucial role in standing up Chicago Connected’s digital learning platform. As administrator of Northstar Digital Literacy, ScaleLIT helps manage a community of practice, convening community-based organizations to share best practices and grow their Northstar learner base. ScaleLIT applies their experience in adult literacy to Chicago Connected’s digital learning community, helping to analyze platform metrics and increase program uptake among Chicago families.”

    -Devon Braunstein, Digital Inclusion Policy Fellow, Office of the Mayor

Membership Highlights

70+ Member Organizations

FY ‘22 boasted our highest membership numbers ever!

4 SOS Candidates

We briefed 4 Secretary of State candidates on adult literacy specific topics.

30+ Coalition Meetings

We held monthly Citywide literacy council meetings.

  • We are happy to report that we have our highest membership numbers ever at over 70 member organizations. We engaged these members in multiple ways this year, all in line with our mission, whether through organizing local providers for AEFL Week 2021, helping them expand their initiatives, or briefing candidates.

    We created a host of AEFL Week activities that reached over 6,000 people. From a virtual rally to a writing contest and social media engagement, we were able to help shine a light on the importance of Adult Education & Family Literacy.

    We continued to engage and inform public officials about the importance of Adult Literacy. This year, we also hosted 4 candidate briefing sessions prior to the secretary of state primary elections, highlighting our expertise and priorities for adult education across the state of Illinois.

    We expanded our Health Literacy initiatives by working with partners to digitize our process and make accessing our opportunities even easier. In addition to hosting monthly learning circles, we also held the Northside, Southwest, and Hispanic literacy council meetings monthly throughout the year. Finally, we hosted our annual Night of 1000 Stars–a showcase of adult learner accomplishments. We are honored to work with each of our members and their participants, and we’re excited for the record growth we saw in FY22.

AJC Services

2X

Career Navigators

100+

Partner Meetings Held

2,000+

Career Referrals

  • Our work with the American Job Centers across Chicago has become crucial to our mission of expanding equitable access to job training and workforce development services. We provide communication and foster relationships designed to ensure all residents have access to workforce development regardless of their starting point.

    We have known that individuals with barriers experience complex challenges. The first Career Pathway Navigator we brought on focused on working with individuals with low literacy. Then, through All Chicago, we expanded our focus to serving individuals experiencing homelessness. Now, in the upcoming year we plan to hire additional Career Pathway Navigators to broaden our capacity again and focus on serving individuals with disabilities, connecting each person we work with to the job training and workforce development opportunities that work best for them.

    To that end, we have doubled our career pathway navigator team, hosted partners in hundreds of meetings to expand access to resources and best practices, and collectively referred over 2000 individuals to workforce development programs best suited to their individual needs.