The conference hosted Loretta Lynn and other notable people, and after the night was over, Barbara Bush, wanted to create a foundation that would "break the intergenerational cycle of illiteracy.

"[3] She subsequently began working with several different literacy organizations and spent much time researching and learning about the factors that contributed to illiteracy—she believed homelessness was also connected to illiteracy.

[5] Six weeks after her husband's inauguration, on March 6, 1989, she announced the establishment of the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy, during a White House luncheon.

[19] Before joining the Barbara Bush Foundation, Roberts held a number of leadership roles at AARP, including Vice President of Enterprise Strategy and Director of Organizational Effectiveness.

[20] Previously, Roberts was a management consultant at a number of firms devoted to helping clients in the commercial, nonprofit and federal sectors with strategy and operations projects.

The $7 million prize purse challenged teams to develop working mobile apps within one year that result in the greatest increase to adult learner literacy skills.

The Foundation aimed for the toolkit to be used by any care providers, from parents to nurses to teachers, to engage children and work with them in the first three years of their lives to develop language, literacy and social skills.

The other organizations—the Coalition on Adult Basic Education, Digital Promise, Pi Beta Phi, and Reading Is Fundamental—have varied backgrounds and areas of expertise, allowing Voices for Literacy to reach and connect with many different groups.

[28] The Foundation funded a 2020 economic impact study by Gallup[29] in which its principal economist, Jonathan Rothwell, concluded that the U.S. could increase its gross domestic product by 10%, generating an additional $2.2 trillion in annual income, by enabling greater literacy for the 54% of Americans reading below a sixth-grade level nationwide.