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The Troup County Certified Literate Community Program (CLCP) is wanting to hear from students who might be considering dropping out of school and from adults who have a desire to go back to school but haven’t.

The CLCP program recently launched a survey for at-risk youth, as well as adults that might be considering going back to school.

The survey is titled the “Barriers to Education” survey and only takes a couple of minutes to complete.

With the data, Troup CLCP wants to work to meet the needs of the community as it tries to remove some of the issues preventing locals from advancing their education.

Diane Harrell, executive director of Troup CLCP, said when the organization first started there weren’t other groups focused on reading.

Now, Success by Six, Get Troup Reading and the Jungle Bus are all partners in helping young students get reading.

That’s allowing CLCP to put some of its focus on older students and adults.

“Our focus has always had an adult literacy component,” said Diane Harrell, executive director of Troup CLCP. “If you drop out of school, get your GED, you’re more employable, and it makes the community better … Debbie [Burdette] retired, and the pandemic kind of shut things down for a couple of years. Now, we’re regrouping and refocusing, and this is where the survey comes in.”

Harrell and her husband, John, said the purpose of the survey is to find out why someone isn’t pursuing a high school education and to better promote the adult education offerings in Troup County.

“We need to know what we don’t know,” Harrell said.

“What can we do to get you back in school or to keep you from dropping out? But, mostly the adult education, if they can go back and get their GED or high school equivalent, then they may be better in the workforce or they may decide to go on to West Georgia Tech, or [another] college.”

The survey asks a respondent if they are a student in high school or an adult contemplating returning to school.

For high schoolers, it asks if they think they will finish school and asks for things that would help them finish school. For adults, it asks what would allow them to go back and finish school.

To take the survey, scan the QR code in this story.