Manhattan, NY: Help Solve the Literacy Crisis as a Lead Project Manager

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Have you ever wanted to do something AMAZING to change the world but didn't know where to start?

Here is an opportunity to help underprivileged children, to help under-served children, to help ALL children displaced from school by COVID-19, to help close the opportunity gap in America, by closing the education gap, by closing the literacy gap that looms large, like an impassable crevasse, separating the haves from the have-nots, the rich, the almost rich, the upper-middle class, even the middle class, from the more than 100 million lower class, lower middle class, working-class poor, impoverished and underprivileged Americans.

We are looking for ONE, a very special person, who has the skills, expertise, experience, passion, and time to be part of something amazing that is about to fundamentally change the lives of millions of children. Right now, millions of children have no hope; but soon, they will have the opportunity to learn how to read, which, in turn, will open a window to education and to a world of potential for them that, not only, has never been opened before, but that has never even been seriously contemplated as a potential reality.

What we are talking about is an adaptive learning, gamified smartphone app, called FUNetix (www.FUNetix.org), that can teach children how to read, in their own home, in an average of just 12 hours of total instruction time!

We are the American Youth Literacy Foundation, and we have been teaching children how to read for 12 years using a patented "reading decoding system!" We have been developing this app for about two years (but started the concept and working on prototypes almost five years ago); and this year we will launch this incredible smartphone app in the App Store and on Google Play at or around Thanksgiving, 2020, to help save millions of children from a lifetime of illiteracy!

Already, there are millions of children who are struggling to learn how to read. Already, there are millions more who have given up on reading and are destined to go through life either completely illiterate or with only semi-literate skills at best. And now with the displacement of 55 million children from school, for an indeterminate amount of time, the loss of reading capacity of the next generation, and the "seemingly incessant," "widening of the gap," presents a new "crisis moment" in American education and a very real threat to the future success (in school, and in life) of millions of young children.

But we believe there IS a way to bridge that gap, to make this a "watershed moment" instead of a crisis moment, by stopping that gap from widening. Universal access to literacy through FUNetix will close the opportunity gap by closing the education gap by closing the literacy gap to near zero. What happens after that, can only be imagined: a virtuous cycle of communication and learning, perhaps, between teachers and students, in ALL of America’s schools and classrooms. And what happens after that? An entire generation of nearly 100% literate young people of all races, religions, creeds, cultures and socioeconomic backgrounds will, quite inevitably, reform the social fabric of the American landscape for the good, and for the benefit of innumerable generations to come.

According to the U.S. Government’s "Annual Report Card," more than 20 million children in grades 3-12, in America's public schools today, can't read at anything close to a proficient level! Translated into "English," that means they are either completely illiterate ("Below Basic:" 24%), or functionally illiterate/ semi-literate ("Basic:" 43%). Fully more than half of all America’s public-school-educated children have between zero and minimal literacy skills. This travesty exists in spite of the fact that, as a nation, we spend more than $11,000 per year, per student, to deliver a public school "education." Just over 24% of all students drop out of public school, most of them in 9th grade. That's 1 million per year! With the rise of the smartphone and the amazing penetration of this powerful tool, even into the most impoverished communities, we feel that the answer we have been searching for IS in the form of an app. So for the past several years, we have been working to convert our amazing reading curriculum, which teaches children how to read in just 12 hours, into an app that teaches children how to read in about the same time. And this is where you come in.

Since the year 2000, America has "graduated" more than 20 million illiterate "students" into the U.S. economy, into our socio-economic and socio-political marketplace of ideas without hope, and without basic survival skills. Without literacy, and without education, these young people have practically zero chance at fulfilling their personal potential; and economic security is simply unattainable. That’s all about to change!

The American Youth Literacy Foundation, dba FUNetix, is a 12-year-old, nationwide, charitable 501 (c) (3) non-profit. We started out as a tutoring program in the regional Philadelphia, Central New Jersey area and we still provide some one-on-one tutoring. But our focus has always been on finding a scalable solution to the literacy crisis in America.

With the rise of the smartphone and the amazing penetration of this incredibly powerful, and ubiquitously critical tool (currently estimated at 80%), even into the most impoverished communities in America, we realized several years ago, that the answer to scalability we had been searching for, was going to be in the form of an app. So for the past several years, we have been working to convert our amazing reading curriculum, which teaches children how to read in an average of just 12 hours, into an app that teaches children how to read in about the same time. And this is where you come in.

The curriculum that our app is based on is a patented reading decoding system, and is so effective at teaching children how to read, that it usually only takes 4-6 hours for them to understand the basic reading-learning system, (which includes a FUN, but intensive introduction to all 44 sounds of the English language, and the basic concept of blending sound symbols into words), and another 4-6 hours for them to reach a 2nd-grade reading level!

On, or about, Thanksgiving, 2020, we will deliver this incredible reading app to the App Store and Google Play, and with it, an end-user experience (the UX) to millions of children in America's inner cities and rural counties, in the barrios and the suburbs, and on the American Indian reservations, and everywhere in-between, where illiteracy is endemic and education and opportunity are, tragically, not universally attainable.

FUNetix will make a profound impact on millions of individual lives, while also profoundly effecting major social improvement on a massive scale, to bring about real, sustainable change in underprivileged and fully privileged communities and classrooms alike, wherever illiteracy and poor literacy looms. Literacy as a path to education and opportunity for millions of American children, and potentially billions of children worldwide, is imminently near. Through FUNetix, the American Youth Literacy Foundation is making English accessible to everyone!

The curriculum consists of more than 2,000, individually narrated screens. We first teach children the 44 sounds of the English language. Then we teach them how to "map," or, associate symbols to each of these sounds. We teach them how to blend those sound symbols and those sounds together to make words and sentences and, ultimately, stories. It usually takes them only 4 hours to learn how to read our super child-friendly, phonetic English code called 21E. Over the next 4 hours, children learn how to use those sound symbols as a "diacritic" pronunciation guide to help them decode ANY English words. We call this the FUNetix Magic Decoder because it works like magic: the magic symbols above the words reveal the hidden sounds of EVERY English word!

FUNetix, the team, is a mission-focused, distributed network of currently, 51 people (and still growing), each contributing between 5 and 65 hours of volunteer time per week. The FUNetix organization is organized into 12 teams including Project Management, Graphic Design, Curriculum Development, UX/Beta Testing, Engineering, Community Outreach and Distribution, Web Development, Funding, Marketing, Communications, and Public Relations, and others.

There's much more to tell. You can read more about our story, and about us, at www.FUNetix.org and www.YouthLit.org. We have much more to do to get ready for our Thanksgiving launch!

Right now, we are looking for 1 very special person who has everything we mentioned above, passion, expertise, time, etc. to join our team and help us launch this app in 2020. Our lead project managers will help build the fundamental infrastructure upon which the "product launch," as well as all members of our organization involved in the product launch, will depend, for effective, collaborative communication and productivity. The Lead Project Management Team will hire future project managers for specific tasking. If you are interested in becoming a "task-specific" project manager, please also contact us and we will file your resume appropriately for a later date.

If you wish to be considered for this opportunity to be one of the three members of our Lead Project Management Team, please send us a cover letter and resume to hr@YouthLit.org.

We are looking for intelligent, creative, enthusiastic, cheerful, optimistic individuals with significant project management experience and with experience using project management software. This is a complex undertaking and we are looking for highly proficient and organized professionals. Just to be clear, our organization is an all-volunteer, extended network comprised of individuals from around the country who collaborate virtually. Individuals interested in this position must have the confidence and ability to continue to build and manage this kind of extended network using select networking tools and platforms.

Thank you! We hope this opportunity finds you at the right place and the right time in your career to make a difference and an impact, in an amazing way, for millions of children who are waiting for someone, or something, to lead them out of a life of impoverishment and into a future of unlimited possibility and potential.

We look forward to hearing from you and speaking with you about the future of literacy in America.

Mr. R. Kali Woodward
Founding, Executive Director