Nominations for The Post's second annual Liberty Medal Awards are pouring in, with New Yorkers looking to honor the unsung heroes of the city.

Today, we introduce a few of the nominees who have already made New York a better place through their selfless actions and unflagging dedication.

Hundreds of low-income, undereducated Brooklyn families are turning their lives around because of a woman who gives them the most important tools for success - family values and literacy.

Helping families read and succeed is a labor of love for Jane Pacelli-Van Auken - who's spent more than a decade motivating and educating people who thought they were destined to live impoverished lives of struggle.

"I've been at this a long time. There's no turning back," said Pacelli-Van Auken, a career educator and a coordinator of the state Department of Education's Even Start literacy program.

For her relentless work on behalf of the families she helps, Pacelli-Van Auken was nominated for The Post's Liberty Awards Educator Medal.

"She amazes me," said Morris Babcock, who nominated her.

"She takes adults who are unable to read, and children getting ready to start school and she teaches the family to read and write," Babcock said. "She helps these people make the right choices to better their lives."

Pacelli-Van Auken grew up in Brooklyn, and that's where she does most of her work.

She runs three sites where parents and their children - ranging in age from babies to 7-year-olds - are taught four days a week to read and raise a family.

Taking the program a step further, Pacelli-Van Auken's staff makes home visits twice a month to check in on the families in their homes.

Parents have gotten GEDs, college degrees and begun careers they never thought possible. Their children are more confident and begin school at or above the reading levels of their peers.

"It's a change that will impact generations in that family," she said.