Sauk Prairie Area Literacy Council (SPALC) began in 1988 with a focus on “adults who are non-readers or poor readers and adults with low math skills.” English was the native language of the first students, and the goal was for them to improve reading and writing skills in practical matters, complete the General Education Development (GED) test, participate in the education of their children, enjoy reading, and make informed choices in voting and participating in the community.
In 1996, the Council handed the program operations to Madison Area Technical College (MATC).
October 2001, SPALC began exploring taking back the program from MATC.
In 2002, SPALC was incorporated as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, however the program was still being led by an individual at MATC. By this time, most students were native Spanish speakers, and the delivery format was entirely group classes held at the Community Education Center in Sauk City and at the St. Vincent de Paul Community Resource Center in Prairie du Sac. Interestingly, one part of the program at this time was a Madre a Madre class focused on healthy pregnancy.
Between 2001 and 2004, the council had a difficult time recruiting and retaining board members. The president at that time resigned after serving two terms, citing a lack of leadership core for the council. He stated, “It is time for us to sink or swim...without any definite leadership, the SPALC as we know it will dissolve.” Also, the numbers in the group classes decreased significantly over this time period, and there was little active recruiting of either students or tutors. However, a small group of people worked to keep the council viable. They switched the delivery mode to a 1:1 tutoring format. A Program Coordinator was appointed. One of the board members volunteered to lead a walk-in group class. The student population remained, for the most part, English Language Learners (ELLs), and for the majority of these adults, Spanish was their native language. At the time, the home country of most was Mexico.
In February 2011, the Program Coordinator held a re-organizational meeting, and a new board was formed and became active by April 2011. Monthly collection of census data began in May 2011: three tutors were matched with four students. In addition, two tutors offered a walk-in group class with 3-4 regular attendees and an occasional drop-in student. Soon, three tutors and 20 students were on the waiting list to be matched.The last tutor preparation workshop had been held in 2008. The first priority of the new board was to recruit and prepare tutors. An in-house tutor preparation workshop was developed over the summer of 2011. Since November 2011, tutor preparation workshops have been offered every fall and more often when appropriate.
Fast forward to 2023 (post-pandemic), given board term limits, SPALC remained active with a relatively new board of directors and officers leading the mission of the literacy council; a Strategic Planning session helped define a new focus on community outreach to make sure more knew that SPALC existed -- both as a resource for those needing to improve their English skills and for individuals interested in becoming trained volunteers and engaged as tutors. The SPALC tutor prep workshops developed into ad hoc training sessions scheduled as individual tutor applications are received. In other words, we arrange to train volunteers relatively quickly - and then work to make a tutor/learner match as soon as possible based on our roster of learners who have submitted an application. We try our best to balance wait lists on both sides - though not often easy!