Literacy Partners

As part of our initiative to empower our ESL students to use English outside the classroom in meaningful ways, we took a recent trip to The Metropolitan Museum of Art allowing students to practice language skills while engaging with history, art, and culture. 🖼️🖌️🏙️ Below is our process from beginning to end! To prepare: 🔹 Students learned about Museum Vocabulary. 🔹Students learned to practice conversation in English in a museum setting. 🔹 Students had a speaking session with volunteers to ask them about the LP volunteers’ experience at The Met Museum and their favorite exhibit. During the visit: 🔹 Students were given tasks to explore, choose their favorite exhibit/items, take notes on the exhibit description, and answer reflection questions such as why do you think this piece is important to you? Would you take your children to view this exhibit, and why? After the trip: 🔹 Students will write about their experiences at the museum, make a poster about their favorite piece and their feelings surrounding it, and present their work in front of the class and to the volunteers. Volunteers will then ask questions related to the student’s experience at The Met. Special thanks to Putri–one of our ESL teachers and all our volunteers in connection to The Met! ✨

Literacy Partners is thrilled to introduce two new members to our board of directors: Aureon A. Herron-Hinds, Esq. and John Rosso. Aureon and John are joining Literacy Partners’ leadership at an exciting time of continued organizational growth, and when the need for closing literacy gaps is more critical than ever. Bringing each their wealth of knowledge and experience in shaping the literacy world, we look forward to their leadership and support!

Congrats to our 2024 Literacy Partners Speed Readers participating in this year's TCS New York City Marathon! Every year we look forward to supporting our amazing Team Literacy Partners members as they train, and ultimately achieve their goal of completing this race, all while raising critical funds for Literacy Partners programs. Support our efforts in championing literacy and learn more about our runners when you visit https://lnkd.in/eSxznS_x. 🏃🏙️🏃♀️

Our second featured student for Hispanic Heritage Month is Gaby, who participated in our Early Literacy workshops through the Spanish-speaking program, La Fuerza de Familias Latinas. Originally from Venezuela, Gaby came to the U.S. in 2018 with her husband to improve their quality of life. She has a PhD in biochemistry and worked at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota for four years. They had a daughter in 2021 and now live in New Jersey. Gaby enjoyed taking our Early Literacy workshops and was motivated to learn more about the different strategies to read with her child. Another incentive was receiving free bilingual books so her child doesn’t lose sight of their culture and language! Her favorite book to read with her daughter is Guess How Much I Love You in Spanish, a gift for her daughter on her 3rd birthday. Since establishing a reading habit, Gaby is now able to create stories on her own with her daughter and together they build fictional worlds and characters. From our workshops and classes, Gaby learned techniques to create 'momentos de conexion' with her child – instead of giving instructions, she has found it more impactful to listen, look, and engage with her daughter. In her own words, Gaby says, “the workshops have shown me that I can be present and help my daughter but also be able to work for myself. I want to be an example for her and want success for myself. I plan to grow my consulting business in science and I want her to see that I love what I do.” Looking forward, Gaby wants her daughter to be self aware and emotionally intelligent, to be proud of her culture and heritage, to attend college eventually, and to learn that “knowledge is power, not money”. With the support and love of Gaby and her husband, we are certain that their daughter is destined for success. Soon, Gaby would like to work in a lab again to propel her science career forward. We have no doubt that she and her family are on to great things!

In celebration of Hispanic and Latino Heritage Month, Literacy Partners hosted an incredible book bundling event, made possible by our partner Bloomberg Philanthropies. With the help of 40-50 amazing Bloomberg volunteers and our dedicated Literacy Partners staff, we packed over 900 bilingual Spanish/English book bundles, each with a handwritten note for families in our Spanish-speaking program, La Fuerza de Familias Latinas across the country. A huge thank you to everyone who contributed to making this event such a success! #BooksForAll #EarlyLiteracy #Volunteers #LaFuerzaFamLatina #BOTO

We know that the opportunity gap among kids has a lot to do with the gaps in literacy, starting at a young age. This crisis is compounded, when 54% of adults in the U.S. can't read above a 6th grade level. Think of what that means for access to health, jobs, and more. So I was delighted to speak with Angelique Molina-Mangaroo at NYN Media about the connection between literacy rates in school, and what we must do outside of school: "Literacy Partners’ executive director, Asaf Bar-Tura, said he believes it’s not just about the reading curriculum in schools, but the resources available at home and the efforts made outside the classroom to ensure reading proficiency. “So much of what promotes literacy happens outside of school, and that's what happens at home in particular with caregivers, with parents, with guardians, and how they interact with young people,” Bar-Tura said. “There's a lot that we can do in school, but there's also only so much that we can do in school if we don't promote and give parents and caregivers the tools to promote literacy at home.” 

This Hispanic Heritage Month, we’re excited to feature two students from our La Fuerza de Familias Latinas workshops! Our first student is Adriana who moved from El Salvador with her husband and her son to the U.S. in 2017. Like many parents who emigrate to the U.S, she wanted a better life and future for her child. Since moving to Nevada, she has had two more beautiful children. Adriana found out about our La Fuerza de Familias Latinas workshops from a Facebook ad and signed up. The opportunity to help her children as a parent and reinforce the values of family coupled with the fact that the program was free and offered books was an incentive to sign up. Adriana also wanted to meet other mothers and feel less alone with the journey of parenting young children. Adriana shared with us that she appreciated that the sessions were virtual, which made it easier to attend as a busy mother. She also liked how the workshops support the Latino community, as it helped her not to lose sight of certain customs and values for her children. She particularly enjoyed the telenovela, La Fuerza de Creer, which we developed in collaboration with Univision. It shows examples of real-life stories that she could relate to, especially the “Science of the Kitchen” episode, which taught her to let her children experience a bit more independence and contribute to taking care of their home. Since taking the workshops, Adriana has been reading more with her children, noticing that they get a better night’s sleep and expand both their vocabulary and imagination. Her favorite book to read to her kids is Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss. She wants parents to know that the workshops gave her “la fuerza”, or the strength, to keep going as a busy parent. Looking forward, Adriana’s goal is to raise her children with good values and to provide them with even brighter futures. She wants to be a better mom by learning and studying more English. Eventually, she wants to study accounting and/or anything administration or marketing-related. Adriana inspires all of us here at Literacy Partners and we hope her story inspires you, too!

Literacy Partners had a wonderful meeting with Council Member Francisco Moya - District 21, this week! Our students had the opportunity to share how our English for Parents program has impacted their lives. Want to learn more about our classes and how to get involved? Visit https://lnkd.in/dqGdNXzv today!

Celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month—Literacy Partners style—by sharing our top 10 Bilingual Children's Books We Love! From our partner program, La Fuerza de Familias Latinas, we are spotlighting these stories that have been donated to our student parents and their children in efforts to foster powerful moments of connection with their families. 💫📖🫂 ¡Celebramos el Mes de la Herencia Hispana, al estilo de Literacy Partners, compartimos nuestros 10 libros infantiles bilingües favoritos! De nuestro programa asociado, La Fuerza de Familia Latinas, destacamos estas historias que han sido donadas a nuestros padres estudiantes y sus hijos en un esfuerzo por fomentar momentos poderosos de conexión con sus familias. #hispanicheritagemonth #latinoheritagemonth #nationalliteracymonth

Are you Literacy Partners' new Grants Manager? Learn more about our latest #hiring position at https://lnkd.in/eQuGr_6W. Primarily focused on foundation fundraising and grant writing, the Grants Manager will work closely with the Director of Institutional Advancement on our city, state, and federal government contracts, and will collaborate with other team members to build a robust corporate giving portfolio. This position ensures grant compliance and timely preparation of invoices and reports to funders.