Traditionally, "community literacy" refers to programs that are based in and designed for communities – what I term the “in/for” paradigm in this thesis. In the “in/for” paradigm, literacy is, in essence, a commodity, passed from an institution that has access to it, to a community that doesn’t. My thesis proposes an alternative framework for community literacy, in which literacy programming is designed by and about communities – what I term the “by/about” paradigm. Literacy by a community might involve the inclusion of the community in institutional decision-making processes, the community’s active participation in classroom management and instructional practices, and representation of the community in instructional materials as authors and creators. Literacy about a community might include learning processes and outcomes that focus on success strategies within specific community contexts, institutional decisions and instructional practices that center learners’ lived experiences, and representation of the community in instructional materials as subjects. The “by/about” paradigm engages a plurality of literacies that individuals need to navigate their specific communities successfully, including civic, environmental, data, and workplace literacies, among many others. The “by/about” paradigm also creates space for communities to have full democratic engagement in the process of defining which literacies matter, to whom, and for what reasons. This thesis reports on my participatory research with Literacy Together, a Western North Carolina-based community literacy center with which I have served as a tutor since 2017 and a board member since 2023. By engaging democratic methodologies, institutional critique, and participatory research, I identify spaces for rhetorical intervention in institutional and instructional approaches to and practices of community literacy, with the ultimate goal of increasing community literacy centers’ democratic potential via their accessibility and impact. This study also offers institutional and instructional action plans for democratizing literacy practices and implementing democratic principles in the classroom, specifically drawing on the aforementioned “by/about” paradigm to incorporate methods that improve student agency and empowerment.