St. Joseph Summit brings community together to tackle literacy challenges
ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (KQTV)-- The St. Joseph Literacy Summit is all about bringing people together—educators, business leaders and nonprofit partners—to tackle a big issue facing Missouri: Literacy.
Carol Burns, chair of St. Joseph Reads, said the summit is a great chance for people to come out, have conversations and really think about why literacy matters—not just for the community, but for individuals too.
"I think the challenge is more national and state, which has been a crisis in the United States now for a few decades,” Burns said.
She emphasized how the literacy rates are actually declining instead of improving, which makes it even more important to raise awareness in the community.
"Nationally, our literacy rate was 82% in 2017, and by 2025 it went down to 79%, and so I think the community reflects some of the issues that we have nationally as well,” Burns said.
Part of the issue, she explained, is how many children are still trying to catch up after setbacks from the pandemic, which made it harder for them to develop strong reading skills.
Beyond that, getting everyone in the community engaged in reading remains a challenge—but an important one, because it directly impacts opportunities for people.
"This is our first summit. St. Joseph Reads has been around for about three years, and we have had several projects, and we thought that we needed to do something that’s more inclusive in the community,” Burns said.
She wanted to send a clear message to the community: everyone has a role to play in improving literacy, and it’s something that impacts all of our lives.
Jeanne Daffron, a community volunteer, agreed and added how literacy is a widespread issue—not just in St. Joseph, but across the state and the nation.
"We do see some very effective practices going on in some communities, but we can’t do anything about what’s going on across the nation, but we can definitely work on improving this in our own community,” Daffron said.
She said the next step is getting the community to the summit to figure out how to boost literacy in St. Joe and drive real change.
