How Literacy Impacts the Vital Conditions

Literacy is a Foundational Skill to Support Individual and Community Well-Being

The Vital Conditions for Well-Being are the things that we all need, all the time, to thrive and reach our full potential--humane housing, meaningful work and wealth, a thriving natural world, reliable transportation, basic needs for health and safety, lifelong learning, belonging and civic muscle.

Literacy is a foundational life skill that enables people to know and navigate their world. It also supports them in understanding, accessing and improving Vital Conditions in their own communities. “Beyond its conventional concept as a set of reading, writing and counting skills, literacy is now understood as a means of identification, understanding, interpretation, creation, and communication in an increasingly digital, text-mediated, information-rich and fast-changing world. Literacy is a continuum of learning and proficiency in reading, writing and using numbers throughout life and is part of a larger set of skills, which include digital skills, media literacy, education for sustainable development and global citizenship as well as job-specific skills. Literacy skills themselves are expanding and evolving as people engage more and more with information and learning through digital technology.” (UNESCO, 2024. What you need to know about literacy.)

Opportunities to learn literacy skills across a lifetime are not only a part of the Lifelong Learning Vital Condition, but influence every other Vital Condition. Literacy is necessary to navigate life successfully -- to read a bus schedule, to understand a medical prescription, to obtain and retain a meaningful job, to interpret and pay your bills, and to find and navigate community resources. Being able to read, write and communicate also gives us the individual knowledge and confidence to ask questions, share our perspectives and advocate for ourselves and our communities.

Investments in literacy are necessary to enable every Delawarean to engage in society and reach their full potential. We need to advocate for high-quality universal Pre-Kindergarten programs, which help children with the foundational literacy skills they need to be successful. We also need to invest in programs that help adults learn to read, write and communicate, as well as the supports to read and speak English, or to learn what they may not have in their K-12 education. This two-generational approach can address the current challenges of literacy as well as create thriving families and stronger communities. Connect with First State Pre-K and Literacy Delaware to learn about how you can help.