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Meet Jose L. Cruz of San Diego Council on Literacy in Mission Valley

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Jose L. Cruz.

Jose, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
My work in literacy began in 1985. I made a transition from teaching and joined Project READ which was the new adult literacy program for the National City Public Library. As it turns out, National City still has the lowest rate of adult literacy among the 18 cities in San Diego County.

At Project READ, I was a student-tutor coordinator, tutor trainer, and Executive Director, all between 1985 and 1988.

In 1986, the San Diego Council on Literacy (SDCOL) was formed. For the first time in history, San Diego County had a literacy coalition. This corresponded with Project Literacy U.S. (PLUS), which was the national ABC and PBS campaign for adult literacy in America. Things got big and busy fast!

In 1988, I joined the SDCOL as its first paid staff person. My job was to serve the needs of the network of affiliated literacy programs that belonged to the coalition. At that time, there were five programs in the coalition. Today, there are 27.

After 14 years with the SDCOL, I worked for California Literacy, a statewide literacy coalition. This was probably my dream job, but, after three years, California Literacy was forced to close down. All of us were saddened because we had actually delivered on our vision of producing a statewide effort for literacy. My job at that time was to, again, attend to the needs of the hundreds of programs that made up the California literacy network.

For the next two years, 2005-2006, I was the first executive director for the Southern California Library Literacy Network. At the end of the 2006, the SDCOL called me back to serve as its CEO. I have been the SDCOL’s CEO for going on 12 years now. All along, I kept my head down and learned all that I could along the way. When I looked up, 12 years had passed.

Has it been a smooth road?
There were a number of obstacles. That’s life. Mostly, I had to learn who I was. I had to learn to see myself the way other people saw me. In some ways, what I was doing was contrary to who I thought I was. I’ve always been shy, a loner. I was quite surprised to find myself conducting workshops, making public presentations in front of large audiences, being the person who headed up committees, being the subject-matter expert, writing proposals, and being our region’s ambassador for literacy. Some people called me, “Mr. Literacy”. In 2003, The San Diego Union-Tribune named me “Educator of the Year”. I was just doing my job…and making friends for literacy. I guess I can say that, if I had a talent, it was as the guy who brought literacy to a lot of people who needed to know that 20% of U.S. adults read at the lowest level of literacy. I made friends for literacy. And, it turns out that this was needed. And I was given a lot of fun assignments. In 1997 I was asked to be the escort for Miss America. This Miss America, Tara Dawn Holland, had selected literacy as her cause. When she came to Glendale to support the California Literacy conference there, I was there with her, for three days. We became friends. Later that year, I asked her to read to children in Barrio Logan. And she did. Yes. I brought Miss America to Barrio Logan.

Other struggles? I learned about the world of nonprofit organizations. There’s so much to do, so much to worry about, dealing with the needs of board members so that they can be effective advocates. And, of course, there’s the need for raising funds. Its rewarding work, but it can be a hard way to live, year after year. I wish that we didn’t have to worry about money so much. Literacy is vital to everything that we do as a society. The only problem is, as a problem, illiteracy is hard to see. We see and address symptoms: homelessness, unemployment, crime, and other social challenges, when we should be dealing with the root causes of these challenges. Literacy is a root cause issue that gets lost among the symptoms. So, we never really deal with the problems.

After all of this, again, I looked up, and I had become a leader. In 2014, I was presented with the Civic Leader of the Year award, again by The San Diego Union-Tribune, this time through their recognition of “Latino Champions”.

We’d love to hear more about your business.
The San Diego Council on Literacy unites the community to support literacy through advocacy, partnerships, resources, and coordination. With 27 literacy programs serving San Diego County, it is easy to be confused about what the problem is, who needs help, where to go for help, where to volunteer, where to donate books or funding. We provide a handle for the literacy effort in our region.

I wear a lot of hats…and that’s a problem. We’d like to secure enough funding to hire a business manager so that I can do the job of a nonprofit CEO. We’d like to hire a coordinator for our health literacy program. There’s so much more that we can be doing. For now, in this time that we are dealing with a resource shortage, it helps to have people who can do a lot of jobs.

What I am known for is being known. “Everyone knows Jose. Jose knows everybody.” And that’s a good thing for our cause because I’m always promoting. I like to think that I collect and hand-out more business cards than most people. I found that I communicate passion for this cause. It comes naturally to me. I didn’t know that I was presenting that way. I just thought that I was sharing information.

I tend to have good relationships with a number of former literacy students. I know many of them and maintain communications and friendships with many of them. In fact I should say that they’re friends who are or were literacy students. That’s how I met them.

At home, I’m the book guy…giving books to kids. The joy is priceless and the payoff for society is grand.

What do I do? Write proposals for funding, do public presentations, manage staff, support the board of directors, communicate with the general public, maintain communications with donors and other supporters, attend events…especially those that are sponsored by our literacy program partners. One of our most important jobs is to convene the 27 affiliated literacy programs. They have met every other month for the past 32 years. They enjoy convening with each other. And we try to have special presentations for them so that they continue to grow as professionals. We also support the Countywide Tutor Conference. I have shown up every year since…a long time ago…like since 1989 or so.

In all of these years, I have watched people come and go. I’m still here and I’m glad, and other people are glad because stability is an asset. Familiarity is an asset. Our work is just as important today. And I have the assurance that the work that we are doing with our affiliated programs is changing lives, helping parents be better parents; helping children succeed as students; helping workers succeed in their careers.

I know the history of this organization. The SDCOL is a part of me. And there’s only one San Diego Council on Literacy. In my 33 years of literacy work, 26 have been with the SDCOL. I didn’t think that this is where my Bachelor’s degree in English would take me…that this is what I would end up doing with my teaching credential. I wonder how much people end up where they planned on ending up. I will just say that, it seems to me, this path was chosen for me. In some ways it was a lot of work. In other ways, what I did in my career was in my nature…compatible with my personality. Not many of us in nonprofit work will get rich. The real wealth, truly, is in helping others. I take pride in doing this work. I believe in karma and I believe that my work in literacy placed me in a position where I could be paid with good health and peace of mind and respect from others. I am a giver, almost to a fault. God put me in a very good place. The rewards keeps coming. I still feel like the best is yet to come.

So, I put other people first. Why are we here? For ourselves? To take from the world? I’m still in pursuit of a dream. My friends ask me, “Are you trying to save the world?” I always answer, “Me and a bunch of other people.” I confess to having a super hero mentality…not a big ego but the belief that the odds can be beaten and that the side of good will eventually win over evil or any other obstacle. I believe in the good guys.

I do have another super hero fantasy. One day I’d like to levitate, just one inch off of the ground. But, guess what? It is quite possible that I already have. Me and a bunch of other people.

Is our city a good place to do what you do?
San Diego is a great city filled with good people. There are approximately 12,000 nonprofit organizations in San Diego County. Many of them are not very active or visible.

If I had to pick between more nonprofit organizations vs. more funding for the ones that are here, I’d choose the latter. With all the abundance out there, groups like the San Diego Council on Literacy should not have to work so hard to pay the bills that come from the provision of vital services. If everyone gave just a little bit more, quality of life would be lifted for everyone. There’s a payoff for giving, sharing, caring, and volunteering, The people who do these things will testify to how good they feel when they contribute to a charity or when they simply take time and make a sacrifice to help complete strangers.

Anyway, if I had to move to another city to work, I’d still be here!

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