Brittany MacLean on a mission to enable readers

There are more than 7,000 people living in Flathead County who are unable to read this sentence.

That’s according to Brittany MacLean, executive director for the Literacy Center of Northwest Montana.

MacLean, who took over the literacy position about six months ago, is on a mission to change that.

“I feel like literacy is one of the most empowering and important issues,” she said. “It’s just absolutely critical. So it’s really exciting that we have so many programs here that are serving the needs of people in a variety of different ways.”

The Literacy Center of Northwest Montana — formerly Literacy Volunteers of Flathead County — is located in the Gateway Community Center. It offers a variety of programs for adults and children alike, including an English as a Second Language program.

There’s also a U.S. citizenship program, family literacy program and juvenile detention program, where volunteers visit inmates at the juvenile detention facility, read with them and then discuss what they’ve read, applying it to their own lives.

“Reading is a skill, but it’s also very healing and very therapeutic as well,” MacLean said.

The family literacy program encourages literacy within the family, reading to children and helping children learn. The Literacy Center office features a homey atmosphere, with comfortable couches and chairs placed around bookshelves filled with donated books. There are also a couple of children’s sections, with smaller tables and board games.

MacLean’s first goal at the Literacy Center is to get the word out.

“We want to let people know we’re here, and invite people to come to our office, either as a learner or a volunteer,” she said. “We’re really reaching out to people who want to learn and people who want to volunteer. We have so many volunteering and learning opportunities, and it’s a safe place, an inviting place, and a place that’s centered on community.”

“This isn’t just a classic social service,” MacLean said of the center. “We’re all doing it together. So all of the volunteers that work with learners, it’s just back-and-forth. They’re always learning from each other and it’s completely equal.

“That’s the thing about learning. Learning is back-and-forth. It’s for both people, and not just one-sided.”

Among the benefits of literacy that MacLean touts are a sense of connectivity within communities, and the importance of understanding the world around you.

MacLean is well-spoken and talks easily of times where her community and that sense of connectivity played large roles in her life. A couple of those times were during campaigns for a spot in the Montana Legislature, first in Senate District 2 in 2009 and then for a House District 8 seat in 2012. She lost both races.

She is a University of Montana graduate and attended the New School for Social Research in New York to complete a graduate degree in nonprofit management and policy.

She decided to run for office after attending a women’s conference in Bozeman, after moving back to the Flathead Valley from Alaska.

“After coming back to Montana, I just wanted to see what women were doing in the state,” MacLean said. “It was the last piece of that conference where they were encouraging women to run for office, and it was one of those moments that really spoke to me. So it was women who encouraged me in running for office.”

Aside from her work at the Literacy Center, MacLean stays busy with national women’s organizations such as U.S. Women Connect and Cities For CEDAW, or the UN Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women.

She also talks about the importance of family, being a single mother of four — Zachary, 15, Chloe, 13, Garrett, 11, and Sofia, 8.

“Parenting and raising children is the most important job that any of us do,” MacLean said. “I think that in terms of policy and legislation, some of the most important policy we’re talking about right now is how to support parents.”

MacLean stressed the value of volunteering as a learning experience, saying that volunteering and teaching is a learning experience in itself.

“I love this position,” she said. “I love the idea of literacy and how important literacy is. There are many things that work to isolate each of us and not being able to read is one of the major roadblocks to living a happy and full life. It’s being able to read what’s going on around you in the world and being able to communicate. I think a lot of times we think about reading as a leisure activity and it’s so much more than that. It’s being able to be engaged with your community.”

A volunteer training session is planned Oct. 11 at the Literacy Center of Northwest Montana, located on U.S. 2 West in the Gateway Community Center. Call 257-READ to volunteer or learn more, or visit www.literacyflathead.org.

Reporter Brittany Brevik can be reached at 758-4459 or by email at bbrevik@dailyinterlake.com.