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For 40 years, Blue Ridge Literacy has helped Roanoke-area adults — especially immigrants — build the skills they need to learn, work and thrive.
Bruce Ingram / Courtesy of Blue Ridge Literacy
Blue Ridge Literacy hosts an annual Scrabble tournament which is a major fundraiser. / With five levels of English for Speakers of Other Languages classes, Blue Ridge Literacy provides adult learners with year-round opportunities to reach their language goals — in-person or online.
Established in 1985, Blue Ridge Literacy (BRL) has now helped to improve the literacy skills of both residents and newcomers to the Greater Roanoke Area for 40 years. Executive Director Ahoo Salem explains why the non-profit has been so successful.
“We were created to address the literacy needs of our adult community, and in turn, the Roanoke community has supported our efforts financially and through volunteerism,” she says. “Over the years, we have constantly adapted our services to meet the needs of our learners in terms of their reading, writing, and communication skills but also current pressing issues such as their need to develop media literacy, especially fact checking, as well as developing digital, financial and health literacy.”
Salem says she feels empathy for today’s immigrants. Born and raised in Tehran, Iran, she left in her mid-20s, traveling to Sweden as a graduate student. There, she met and later married a Roanoke native, arriving here in 2016 and beginning her career at BRL as a volunteer.
“In a sense, I’m helping our students navigate the same challenges I experienced ... and that is so rewarding,” she says. “We help people develop every day communication skills as well as help them access the information and resources they need to make long term plans, which helps with the process of social and economic integration.”
Program Director Sara Geres, who began her philanthropy-related career in the Peace Corps, says that one of BRL’s main philosophies is to keep a learner’s goals and interests in mind when working with them, a major task since the non-profit serves some 400 enrollees annually.
“Many want to improve their English to be more functionally independent like calling and making an appointment with a doctor’s office or speaking with their child’s teacher in a parent teacher conference,” she says. “Others are interested in pursuing higher education or finding the right path to translate their diplomas and career experience to the needs of the local market. During the registration process, we decide together which BRL program would be the best fit based on their experience and life goals. Once that decision is made, they experience instruction based on those goals.
“Our classes are both multi-cultural and multi-lingual, and we serve all levels of English language learners, from pre-beginner to post-advanced. Roanoke is a resettlement city and Blue Ridge Literacy currently serves individuals from over 40 different countries — the world is really here.”
Geres says one of her most satisfying experiences was working with a young man from Darfur, Sudan, from the time he was a teenager until he entered his mid-twenties.
Want to learn how Blue Ridge Literacy transforms lives by empowering adults with essential literacy and life skills? Check out the latest issue, now on newsstands, or see it for free in our digital guide linked below!
The story above is a preview from our July/August 2025 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!