LINC Letter Spring 2023

LINC LETTER

Pix11 News is in Our Corner

On Monday, February 27, LINC staff and Very Involved Parents (VIPs) enjoyed an interactive professional development session on the subject of public speaking led by the 12-time Emmy Award-winning PIX11 News anchor, Dan Mannarino.

Dan did a lively training session on public speaking, and concluded the afternoon reading The World Needs Who You Were Made to Be by children’s author Joanna Gaines. Families were delighted and couldn’t wait to take selfies with Dan.

Literacy Inc. and the Manhattan Borough President Foster a Love of Reading at Cayuga Centers

On Friday, March 24th, Literacy Inc. (LINC) partnered with Cayuga Centers Transitional Foster Care Program and Manhattan’s Borough President Mark Levine to celebrate National Reading Month and donated over 100 copies of Dreamers (Soñadores) by Yuyi Morales in English, Spanish, Creole, and Tagalog.

“It’s essential to recognize the magic of teaching children the joys of reading from a young age. Reading opens up a world of imagination and knowledge, empowering our youth to dream big and explore new horizons. I had the honor of spending a delightful afternoon reading to children from Cayuga Centers and witnessing their enthusiasm for stories, and learning reminded me of the incredible impact that books can have on young minds. A special shoutout to Literacy Inc., who provided books and activities for the children – your commitment to promoting literacy is truly inspiring. Let’s continue to foster a love for reading in our children, for it is the foundation of a brighter future for all.”—Mark Levine

LINC staff and VIPs were thrilled with Mr. Levine’s support of our mission and acknowledgment of our work, and look forward to future collaborations with Cayuga Centers.

Our friends at Pix11 News are fierce advocates for LINC and we cannot thank them enough! They prepared a public service announcement for our upcoming Diversity Through Literacy campaign that will be airing this month. Visit us at www.lincnyc.org/blog to watch it now!

Spring 2023

LINC Staff and VIPs (left) with the Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine (center) and our partners at Cayuga Centers (right)

LINC’s Growing Movement

A Changemaker for Life: Meet Petula Gay, Director of the Friends of Crown Heights

Petula Gay, the Director of the Friends of Crown Heights Educational Center (FOCH) in Staten Island, is more than a friend to Literacy Inc. (LINC). She is a true literacy leader and advocate. Petula has been a LINC Very Involved Parent (VIP) since 2022 and in that short time she has encouraged five of her staff to also become VIPs.

The Friends of Crown Heights is a provider of group day care, universal pre-Kindergarten and after-school programs for 3 and 4 year olds, and has been a long-time partner of LINC. This spring, we introduced one of our new workshops, Print Concepts to FOCH.

“LINC is an organization that we worked with in the past. I was excited when they came into our school community and reintroduced the program with the additional changes and enhancements. I am very interested in any program that LINC offers to grow my practice as an educator and my vision to raise literacy in young children. I appreciate the print concepts workshop because it gives families as well as VIPs the tools they need to help children meet part of their phonological awareness goals. It is a decoding skill.”

Petula understands the importance of LINC’s early literacy work and is an inspiration to those around her. In just one year, her passion and influence brought five new reading advocates to LINC, growing our VIP program.

Continue reading more about this changemaker on our blog: www.lincnyc.org/blog and you too will be inspired.

Literacy Inc. is Partnering with Salesforce to Improve Our Impact

Volunteer employee consultants help us leverage Salesforce’s cloud-based, customer-relationship management technology to grow our transformational early literacy programs in New York City. In addition to improving LINC’s outreach to parents and caregivers, our collaboration enables us to more efficiently and effectively monitor our impact on early literacy success.

Thank you to Salesforce, especially Archit Budhraja and Brandon Patterson, for your many years of dedication and donating time and talent to Literacy Inc., our staff, families, and children. This partnership has provided valuable training to our team and will continue to impact our education equity work for generations of readers.

Stay tuned!

The years of work with Salesforce has also made LINC’s “Technology for Community Engagement Plan” - focused on improving parent engagement and program impact - possible. The plan has been launched with generous funding from the Cleveland H. Dodge Foundation to continue our technological improvements and launch our mobile app. We look forward to sharing more soon!

LINC is always seeking creative and impactful partnerships. Please contact LINC’s Director of Development, Katie Gardner-Boehm, to discuss! kgboehm@lincnyc.org.

2 LINC

- SPRING 2023

LETTER

Little New Yorkers Dive into Reading with Blue Ocean Bob and Author Brooks Olbrys

The New York City Reads Initiative and Brooks Olbrys, author of the children’s book series, The Adventures of Blue Ocean Bob, a picture book and four early chapter books that teach children achievement principles and ocean awareness, joined forces for a five-day book tour that got youngsters diving into reading this spring.

From March 15-21, Mr. Olbrys visited eight NYC Reads schools (PS 375M, PS 108M, PS 96M, PS 48Q, PS 160Q, PS 40Q, PS 89K, and PS 7K) inspiring more than 500 K-3rd grade New Yorkers with the story of a courageous island boy who discovers his passion and begins a quest to protect all life in the sea.

The Blue Ocean Bob series ties perfectly to the Reads’ mission to promote lifelong achievement in school and beyond. They reinforce timeless themes while offering practical advice and exemplify the power of a positive mindset, creative thinking, and good decision-making. The books teach kids to dive deep and persist until they achieve their goals.

Mr. Olbrys remarked: “I am grateful for my lasting partnership with Literacy Inc. and proud of the amazing work they do to carry out their worthy mission. And I hope to see my elementary school friends in New York again soon.”

Outreach Increases as City’s First Readers Week Expands

This past January, Literacy Inc. (LINC) and the 17 other partner organizations that comprise City’s First Readers (CFR) united in our quarterly “CFR Week” campaign to reach families with information about free resources, services, and early literacy programming available to them through CFR. The results of this coordinated effort were astounding:

• 1,500 families reached with information about CFR

• 1,300 sets of CFR materials (including early learning activities) were distributed

• 1,100 books were distributed

CFR partners are currently promoting the April CFR Week campaign, which is themed around celebrating diversity and will run throughout April (diversity month). Settings where families will receive materials, books, and information about CFR include story times, parent workshops, pediatrician’s visits, and home-based provider visits.

To learn more and register for a program, visit www.citysfirstreaders.com.