Author: Dr. Jenny McCormack Walker, Literacy Texas Executive Director
As an undergraduate student at the University of North Texas, I majored in journalism with an emphasis in public relations.
One of my favorite professors from UNT, Dr. Wells, often encouraged us to live by three simple but powerful mantras:
- Information is powerful, but only if it’s shared.
- Perception is reality.
- Image is everything.
At the time, those lessons were framed around media campaigns, branding, and public communication. Although I’ve never used that degree in any full-time capacity as a PR professional, it has come in handy in my role as a non-profit leader and advocate for this work.
Years later, I find myself tapping into the PR lessons from my college days. The principles I learned there tie perfectly to our work in adult literacy and our need to communicate with others about our work.
Information is powerful, but only if it’s shared
We’re surrounded by extraordinary adult learners every day. We see these men and women earning diplomas, reading to their children for the first time, obtaining employment, gaining citizenship, and rebuilding confidence after years of believing education was out of reach.
Those stories help people outside of our field better understand the need to support our work. Yet too often, those stories stay inside our classrooms and organizations.
Meanwhile, policymakers, community members, and even potential supporters may have little understanding of happens in adult literacy classrooms. Many people still imagine adult education as a small remedial program rather than a driver for critical workforce development and economic, health, and social mobility in our communities.
If we’re not actively sharing our impact, someone else will define our work for us, and we must control that narrative. Nobody knows our work better than us. It’s our story to tell, but collectively, we’re not telling it to enough people.
Perception is reality
One of the hardest truths in communication is that intent does not always equal impact. We may know the value of adult literacy programs, but public perception is often shaped by visibility, messaging, and repetition. If communities only hear about adult literacy during funding crises, they begin to associate the field with scarcity and struggle rather than innovation and transformation.
This means we must become intentional about how we frame our work. Adult literacy is not charity work. It is community sustainability and vitality. The way we communicate our mission shapes how others value it.
Image is everything
In the public relations world, they use the idea of image to convey a level of trust, consistency, and credibility.
For adult literacy programs, our image is built through every single interaction we have. Every presentation, every community partnership meeting, every social media post, every student success story, and every conversation with stakeholders. It all matters, and maybe even more than we realize.
Do we communicate urgency without hopelessness?
Do we highlight challenges while also showcasing solutions?
Do we present adult learners through a lens of dignity, strength, and potential?
These questions matter because narratives influence funding, partnerships, policy decisions, and public support.
For too long, adult literacy has operated quietly in the background, doing transformational work with limited visibility. But this chapter in the history of our field requires us to advocate boldly, communicate clearly, and tell our story before someone else tells it for us.
Adult literacy professionals have so many stories to tell of perseverance, resilience, second chances, and transformation. In today’s climate, storytelling is essential for our field. In moments like these, effective communication matters more than ever.
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