TIFTON — Literacy Volunteers of Tifton-Tift County was honored Tuesday in Atlanta as a Legacy Literacy program along with 20 other agencies during the 30th anniversary celebration of the establishment of the Certified Literate Community Program (CLCP) of the Technical College System of Georgia (TCSG).

Shirley Carver Miller, Georgia’s  first female bank president and widow of former Gov. and U.S. Sen. Zell Miller, was also honored and spoke during the 2020 EAGLE Adult Education Conference.

Miller’s platform as first lady was adult literacy, and she campaigned to increase the number of people passing General Education Diploma (GED) tests.

“Let me assure you, I get more than I give working with the CLCP efforts,” Miller said. “It’s the highlight of my life. There’s nothing like a GED graduation to me or being at the EAGLE awards.”

EAGLE stands for Exceptional Adult Georgian in Literacy Education and honors the Adult Education Student of the Year.

Under Gov. Miller’s leadership, the state launched the CLCP in 1990 as a means of combating the problems of low literacy. The program is administered by the Office of Adult Education TCSG.

CLCP takes a local, grassroots approach to making the literacy improvement a community-wide commitment. Each one is a nonprofit collaborative that raises the visibility of literacy and provides support to local literacy providers and individuals in need of services. A network is formed to coordinate business, church, volunteer, social service, local government and schools, media and other efforts locally, to reach, influence and support those who want to improve their education.

An executive director manages the day-to-day operations and directs activities designed to meet the CLCP’s goals. In Tifton, Bonnie Sayles has that responsibility.

To qualify as a participant in the program, a community must set the goal of reducing its functional illiteracy rate by 50 percent within 10 years. When a CLCP reaches its stated goal, it applies for the second level of certification as a Certified Literate Community. Literacy Volunteers of Tifton-Tift County achieved this goal in 2010, and is celebrating its 10th anniversary June 3.