This document is designed to help literacy practitioners and others establish health literacy programs to help learners in South Carolina develop the literacy skills needed to perform their role as health consumers and providers and maintain their own health and the health of those they love. The introduction defines literacy and health literacy, explains how health literacy is measured, and outlines issues connected with health literacy. The following types of health literacy initiatives are described: public agency partnerships; health literacy information models; nonprofit lead examples; health literacy volunteer efforts; private health provider settings; international efforts that support local efforts; models for increasing readability and understandability of health messages; and higher education models. The following strategies for success are discussed: determining local community health issues; identifying a program vision and determining outcomes based on that vision; building necessary partnerships; using effective adult teaching and learning principles; designing and implementing a health literacy evaluation program; and building a health literacy public awareness campaign. A section on available health literacy resources includes annotated listings of 29 organizations and 4 publications. A discussion of the impacts of nationally and locally low health literacy and 13 principles of effective educational practice are appended. (Contains 21 endnotes and references.) (MN)