Mary Yardumian hears a speech by well-known literacy educator Frank Laubach. She is inspired to become a literacy volunteer and soon afterwards begins teaching near her home in Florida.
After moving to Pittsburgh, she is unable to find a volunteer literacy program in Allegheny County or nearby counties. She begins training volunteers and helps at least twelve new programs get started.
Mrs. Yardumian starts the Greater Pittsburgh Literacy Council (GPLC) with a group of volunteers from the Pittsburgh area and runs the organization from her home.
The demand for instruction has gotten too great for Mrs. Yardumian and her volunteers to handle. A long-range planning committee recommends the Council become a non-profit corporation and add a Board of Directors, an office, and a professional staff.
GPLC is incorporated and moves into an office in the East Liberty branch of the Carnegie Library.
Don Block becomes the executive director and earns a national reputation as a leader in the field of adult education and family literacy.
Founder Mary Yardumian receives the prestigious PAACE Outstanding Adult Educator Award and the National Jefferson Award for her distinguished public service.
GPLC establishes its first outreach office in Pittsburgh’s North Side.
GPLC receives the Wishart Award for Excellence in Nonprofit Management, given by the Forbes Funds, a supporting organization of The Pittsburgh Foundation.
The Pittsburgh Board of Education closes its large adult literacy program at Connelley Technical Institute, and GPLC helps to provide services for 1,000 displaced students.
To address ever increasing demand for services, GPLC opens its Downtown Center, hires more full-time professional instructors, and begins delivering classes in a variety of formats and schedules.
Mary Yardumian, GPLC’s remarkable founder, passes away at age 81. Her legacy lives on in our Mary Yardumian Society, which recognizes individuals who take a leadership role in the success of Literacy Pittsburgh’s students.
GPLC is awarded oversight of a national project entitled Literacy AmeriCorps, and manages this program through 2012. The program operates in six cities around the country, provides full-time national service workers to dozens of literacy programs, and serves a total of about 10,000 students each year during those six years.
Executive Director Don Block is named the leading administrator of adult basic education in the nation, an award from the Commission on Adult Basic Education.
GPLC receives the Pennsylvania Association of Nonprofit Organizations’ (PANO) Seal of Excellence for successfully completing their rigorous Standards for Excellence® accreditation program. The Standards for Excellence offers tools and resources to empower nonprofits to meet the highest standards of governance, management, and operations. This designation was renewed in 2015 for a five-year term.
GPLC begins managing Compass AmeriCorps. This program places full time AmeriCorps members in organizations where they provide wraparound social services support to refugees and immigrants in the Pittsburgh region.
GPLC receives the Literacy Leadership Award given by the National Coalition for Literacy.
GPLC begins managing OASIS Intergenerational Tutoring in Pittsburgh, which serves high-need children in grades K-4. Senior volunteers serve as tutors at sites in more than 30 local public schools.
GPLC establishes Thrive, a young professionals advisory board, as an extension of its Board of Directors. Thrive board members receive professional development while supporting our mission of better lives through learning.
Embracing its nearly 40-year history and with an eye toward community needs both today and in the future, Greater Pittsburgh Literacy Council begins a new chapter with a new name. On May 2, Literacy Pittsburgh debuts with a new logo, website and message that reflects the dynamic and forward-thinking organization it is today.
Literacy Pittsburgh becomes the primary provider of adult literacy services in Allegheny and Beaver Counties.
Carey Harris is appointed Chief Executive Officer.
Literacy Pittsburgh launches its Ready & Relevant initiative aimed at embedding college and career readiness throughout classes and tutoring, improving data-driven decision making, and engaging "fast track" students to help fulfill a need for middle skills workers.
Literacy Pittsburgh is named a Pittsburgh Business Times' Best Place to Work.
Literacy Pittsburgh receives recognition in three categories for the 29th Annual Communicator Awards: Excellence Award in the General: Nonprofit category for the Employee Training Services video; Distinction Award in Commercials: Nonprofit category for the Employee Training Services video; and Distinction Award in General: Nonprofit category for our agency website.
Literacy Pittsburgh is selected as an honoree for the 27th Annual Webby Awards in the category of Websites and Mobile Sites, Charitable Organizations/Non-Profit.
