The Power of Words

Being illiterate can affect nearly every aspect of daily life. Studies show that students who struggle to read when they reach high school are more likely to drop out. And adults who can’t read or write have greater difficulty finding jobs and are more likely to suffer from poor health. 

Chance knew he wanted to help, so when he first formed WGI, he focused on a specific goal: recruiting local volunteers to visit Baton Rouge schools to read to students and give them books. He contacted business owners in his city to ask them to help.

“Evenings, weekends, I would just spend hours emailing people,” Chance says. 

Many people said no, but Chance pressed on and eventually found volunteers. He then built upon his success in Baton Rouge and set up WGI chapters in other U.S. cities. Later, WGI expanded to several cities in Asia and Africa.

Now Chance is taking his passion for reading one step further by putting literacy instruction into the palms of people’s hands—literally. With the help of business partner General Electric, WGI recently developed a free app, Lyra by WGI, that teaches basic reading and writing skills. 

The app has the potential to reach up to 3.6 billion users (the number of people who own smartphones worldwide). Chance hopes the app—and his literacy program—will help people become engaged citizens.

“Words have the power to change the world,” he says. “Words are how we communicate and work together and find ways to solve problems.”