Wisconsin Literacy

Wisconsin Literacy, Inc. received three health literacy grants for year-long projects in 2010. All of the grants involve a partnership between Wisconsin Literacy and its member agencies. The Walmart Foundation’s State Giving Program grant provides funding to train 800 tutors and teachers how to incorporate health literacy into their lessons. The tutoring will help adult learners who have low literacy skills build knowledge and confidence for navigating the health care system and achieving improved health. The Wisconsin Medical Society Foundation and the PIC Wisconsin Fund grant will allow Wisconsin Literacy to take statewide a pilot project to present health literacy workshops for parents so they can make better decisions regarding their families’ health care and provide them with a readily available take-home guide, What to Do When Your Child Gets Sick. The Safe Care Wisconsin grant will center on developing a curriculum and training literacy tutors and teachers how to teach medication safety to adult learners. The instruction will give adults with low literacy skills the tools they need to interact with their local pharmacist and understand over-the-counter medicine, prescription labels and instructions which will help ensure their health care safety.