Dear Reader,
My sincere hope is that you will find this booklet useful as you consider how to help families who are striving to create a better future. I would like to introduce myself and explain two impulses that prompted the writing of this book.

First, I am a teacher interested in writing. After teaching academic and technical writing at the college level for twenty-five years, I decided to take a risk and try something new. I wanted to learn to write in a format some people call creative nonfiction. The point is to blend factual information with nonfiction narratives of real people. Every fact in the piece is true, but the writer uses the devices of creative writing�character, setting, story line, etc.�to bring the piece alive for the reader.

I am most grateful for the opportunities made possible by a University Research and Creative Activities (URCA) grant at the University of Wisconsin�Eau Claire, where I teach. Freed from some of my teaching responsibilities, I was able to take a course in nonfiction writing from my colleague, John Hildebrand, himself a successful nonfiction writer. Time was available for the many hours of observations and interviews, as required by nonfiction writers, who research mainly by �hanging out� in some interesting context. The grant also allowed me to attend the national Literacy Volunteers of America, Inc. (LVA) conference in Tulsa in 1996.

My second impulse for this project was a longstanding involvement as a volunteer with my local affiliate of LVA. I respect the talent and hard work of adult students in the programs. I admire the dedication and professionalism of volunteers and paid staff who make the many kinds of programs work. In fact, in my application for the URCA grant, I stressed that I wanted to study the dynamic charge that energizes this program, and I promised that the final written piece would �interweave cameos of particular adult students at work with vignettes from the administrative layer of this story.� In this booklet, I have tried to remain true to that promise.

As noted on the title page of this booklet, the names of all persons and places in �Chandler� have been changed. However, the stories are real. Obviously, I am deeply grateful to the students, teachers, tutors, and staff who allowed me to shadow them so closely. Through their openness and absolute cooperation, I was able to bring you an up-close profile of one family literacy program. I hope this story will be a base for your own insightful thinking about ways to assist adults and their children in your region.

Sincerely,

Wilma Clark
August 6, 1997