Great Richmond Trivia Bee benefitting The READ Center

The Great Richmond Trivia Bee, brought to you by Atlantic Union Bank and Columbia Gas of Virginia, #RVATriviaBee, is Richmond’s very own LIVE game show! The Bee is a team-based competition for people who love words, vocabulary, pop culture, history, and literature – and showing off their random knowledge. It’s also the signature annual fundraiser for The READ Center, which means your participation helps adults in the Richmond community develop the skills they need to improve their lives as employees, family members, and citizens – all while having a blast! The mission of the READ Center is to change lives through adult literacy. Since 1984 we have provided adult literacy training through classroom instruction, one-to-one tutoring, group tutoring, specialty classes, and workshops. The READ Center provides free literacy services to adults in metro Richmond. More than forty-three million adults in the United States cannot read, write, or do basic math above a third-grade level equivalency. In the Richmond area, one in six adults has low literacy skills. Low literacy skills affect an individual’s health, education, employment, housing, and economic outcomes. Literacy skills are critical to navigating employment changes, keeping up with health and wellness needs, and adapting to a digital society. Lack of literacy disproportionately impacts historically disadvantaged communities due to systemic factors such as limited educational opportunities, racism, and residential segregation and discrimination policies. The impact of these factors on adult literacy in the Richmond metro region is reflected in our student population. Most of READ’s students are reading at or below a 3rd-grade reading equivalency.