The Topeka Literacy Council is committed to practicing the motto “Each One Teach One” by providing free and confidential one-to-one tutoring to adults, both native and non-native English speakers, who want to improve their literacy skills. The council also serves individuals who want to learn English as a second language.
The Topeka Literacy Council (TLC), founded in 1967, is a not-for-profit 501(C)(3) organization. It was first known as the Laubach Literacy Program and became a project of Church Women United of Topeka. The first workshop to train volunteer tutors was conducted in November 1967. Nineteen tutors were certified in that first workshop.
The council first found a home at the Central (United) Presbyterian Church and had space there until April of 1991, when the council acquired an office and Learning Center for the first time. This was made possible by a one-time grant from Sunbelt Literacy of Topeka, a distributor of New Readers Press, the publishing division of Laubach Literacy. Upon the closing of Sunbelt Literacy, their grant to the TLC provided money, office equipment and a paid office manager.
