In light of research confirming the important effects of parents' literacy skills on their children's eventual acquisition of literacy skills, a project was undertaken in the Altoona Area School District in Blair County, Pennsylvania, to provide basic literacy training to a group of Head Start parents who were unable to read and who were not participating in an adult basic education (ABE) program. The project had four major objectives: provide basic literacy instruction to illiterate parents who were not currently being reached by the county's ABE program, counsel the targeted parents concerning the importance of reading as a family activity and as a method of improving children's chances for achieving success in school, provide opportunities for Head Start families to obtain reading materials for their children to keep at home, and train adult nonreaders to work with their preschool children on prereading skills. To promote the program, Head Start home aides disseminated literacy information to the parents with whom they were working. Those parents who were in need of the literacy program were interviewed and assessed by the literacy volunteer coordinator. Within a month, each parent was matched with a training literacy tutor who met with the adults on a one-to-one basis. Each family received seven books and a free subscription to "Sesame Street Magazine." At the end of the nine-month project, the adult students (who had been tutored between 1.5 and 4 hours each week) showed reading levels that had increased between 6 months and 2 years. It should, however, be noted that 50 percent of the audience originally targeted for the program chose not to participate, and up to 30 percent did not complete the program. (MN)