The Washington Literacy Center (WLC) has been helping DC residents with the most significant barriers and fewest resources learn to read since 1963. Starting as an all-volunteer initiative, the WLC has grown into a dynamic nonprofit focused on teaching skills necessary to thrive in the 21st century. We help students overcome some of the most difficult challenges, including dyslexia, reading, math, and other barriers to education.

We began more than 60 years ago with a mission:





For more than 119,000 of DC's adults, low literacy skills are a barrier to just about everything – completing their education, getting and keeping a decent job, and staying out of poverty. 

We provide students with direct instruction in reading, math, digital and financial literacy, along with workforce skills so that learners can enter a GED program, job-training program, or obtain or improve employment.