How Can I Help?

Core Themes
of GTE Reads and "Check Into Literacy!"

Some causes are simply too important to ignore. And sometimes, for companies looking to raise awareness for a worthy cause, finding unique ways to generate support becomes a corporate goal.

GTE has reached out to engage its 16 million telephone customers across the country in helping to launch an innovative program - �Check Into Literacy!� - that has the potential to generate substantial support for literacy nationwide.

General Literacy Messages

For millions of Americans - and their children - low literacy skills mean fewer opportunities. Reading is the foundation for success in life. Whether for education, jobs, or community involvement, reading is a crucial skill that many in our communities struggle with every day.

• For the nearly 40 million adults in the United States with very low literacy skills, it is difficult to earn a living wage. In fact, 43 percent of people with the lowest literacy skills live in poverty; 70 percent have only part-time jobs, or are unemployed.

• Improving the literacy skills of adults benefits children as well. Children whose parents participate in adult literacy programs improve their own reading skills, grades and test scores, and are more likely to stay in school.

• In today�s high-tech, global economy, literacy means more than just a basic ability to read. According to the National Literacy Act, literacy is �an individual�s ability to read, write, and speak in English; compute and solve problems at levels of proficiency necessary to function on the job and in society; achieve one�s goals; and develop one�s knowledge and potential.�

GTE�s Commitment to Literacy

GTE is committed to being America�s Literacy Champion - helping to improve literacy through a national program aimed at increasing funding, raising community awareness, and supporting a wide variety of literacy efforts.

• GTE supports adult, family, and child literacy through an array of projects-from sponsorships such as the Literacy Champion Program and the GTE Classic Golf Tournament, to employee volunteer efforts like �Season�s Readings,� as well as other local and national projects.

• As one of the nation�s leading telecommunications companies, GTE understands that advanced technology requires increasingly high levels of literacy and other skills. Moreover, GTE understands the importance of developing a regimen of lifelong learning in building a highly skilled workforce. Among the range of literacy programs, GTE has a special interest in improving technological and computer literacy.

• GTE understands the value that local literacy programs bring to the communities where we live and work. The company actively encourages employees to participate and volunteer their time in adult, family, and child literacy programs.

GTE�s new Customer Literacy Donation Program - perhaps the first of its kind - hopes to raise funding and awareness for literacy programs nationwide through a bill check-off system available to GTE telephone customers.

• GTE telephone customers have begun receiving information that tells them how - beginning around November 1 - they will be able to donate $1 per month to literacy programs through a simple check-off on their telephone bills. The money will go to GTE Reads, a newly formed public charity, which will distribute the funds to existing national, state, and community-based literacy organizations.

• Contributors will see their donations used to the benefit of their own states and local communities. Grants from GTE Reads will be allocated proportionately to the regions from where the money was donated, or will be given in support of "upstream" national programs that benefit all Americans. GTE Reads will be an ongoing public charity that raises awareness and provides funding to new and existing literacy programs across the United States.

• This marks one of the first times a major telecommunications company has launched a charitable effort of this kind. GTE believes improved literacy - because of its benefits to the economy and the communities where our customers and employees live and work - is simply good business.