The cooperation project “REAching young adults with low ACHievment in literacy” (REACH), which was sponsored by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), was led by the Stiftung Lesen (German Reading Foundation). REACH was aimed at young adults between 16 and 35 years old who are on the so-called alpha-level 3 – a special group among adults with poor literacy: They profit most strongly from remedial programs for their long-term professional life.

Focus of REACH

The project focused on young adults between 16 and 35 because …

• They can have the greatest and most sustainable benefit from remedial programs,
• Addressing them early will hopefully lead to maintaining and strengthening their reading competence,
• Addressing them will motivate and empower them to become reading role models for their children.

To find ways of access, there was a necessity to identify …

• (Key) persons and locations through which target groups can be reached,
• Communicative approaches and pathways such as the media,
• Content-related links: topics, fields of interest, and activities.

Goals of REACH

• Reviewing the suitability of access ways, which can already be derived from practical experience,
• Identification and review through characterizing the target group in the most differentiated and precise way possible,
• Analysis of living conditions, features, habits, and mindsets (e.g., media usage, activities in social media, living situation, family situation, interests and habits during leisure time, etc.)

To achieve this, no new data was collected, but rather existing data was used as effectively as possible, and linked with each other. Subsequently, a small number of potential ways of accessing and addressing was tested by way of a pilot study and simultaneously evaluated.