is a federally funded capacity building program that serves primarily low-income communities. With the goal of strengthening and expanding volunteer literacy initiatives in under served communities in Illinois LVI placed over 100 VISTA Literacy Corps members in a variety of adult and family literacy programs over the course of 15 years. Sponsorship of the AmeriCorps VISTA Literacy Corps eventually led to involvement in the AmeriCorps Program. Project UPLIFT, a collaboration on behalf of five agencies, was the first AmeriCorps Program that was developed. Members provided adult and family literacy services in communities served by the five agencies. It also acted as an incubator for two additional AmeriCorps Programs that became funded on their own – one at the Center for School Improvement at the University of Chicago and Project MORE at the University of Illinois at Chicago. VOCAL AmeriCorps VOCAL (Volunteer Outreach for Community Action in Literacy) was founded by LVI in 2003 with funding from the Corporation for National and Community Service and is currently in its 10th year. Since its inception, 331 AmeriCorps Members have served as "literacy specialists" in 40 different community and faith based adult literacy programs in Chicago and the surrounding suburbs. Their roles include One-to-one and small group tutoring, recruiting volunteers to serve as tutors, and participating in a training and development program. Correctional education The Jump Start Program is a one-to-one tutoring and mentorship program operating in the Illinois Youth Centers (IYC) in the new department of Juvenile Justice. The program began in 1995 with a three-year grant from the Retirement Research Foundation and support from the Illinois Retired Teachers Association. The Program continues to recruit retirees, especially retired teachers, with the skills to serve as volunteer tutors and mentors to incarcerated youth. LVI continues to work closely with School District #428 of the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice in its efforts to raise the literacy levels of incarcerated youth. Jump Start serves youth incarcerated in IYCs in Chicago, Harrisburg, St. Charles and Warrenville. The target population of Jump Start is teens age 17 and over who are performing below a 9th grade level in reading and/or math. Jump Start tutors focus not only on academics, but also serve as mentors in order to address the emotional and social needs of at-risk youth. New Readers for New Life New Readers for New Life is a network of past and current adult literacy students.