LINC Letter Summer 2021 by LINCNYC

LINC LETTER Summer 2021

Calling all Cyclists! Ride the TD Five Boro Bike Tour for LINC The world’s largest urban bike ride is back! The TD Five Boro Bike Tour will take place on Sunday, August 22, 2021. Join LINC as we ride across 40 miles of iconic New York City streets to spread the joy of reading.

Live on Pix11: Fidelis Care and Literacy Inc. Build Early Literacy Libraries for NYCHA Residents This summer, LINC and Fidelis Care partnered to launch Diversity through Literacy—a campaign to bring authentic books and stories to NYCHA residents. Pix11 News was thrilled to capture the excitement of the young readers and their families as they each chose two books to take home and explored their new community center library. Many of the books donated were written by black and brown authors, and provide perspectives on race, social justice, equity, and inclusion. Diversity through Literacy culminated with a free virtual parent workshop on July 28 when children’s book authors Jessica Ralli and Megan Madison shared their book Our Skin: A First Conversation About Race. This workshop was specifically designed to teach parents the importance of reading diverse books as a way of building early literacy skills and exposing their children to new cultures. After all, “in order for kids to grow, their parents have to grow too!”—Ninoska Aristy, Director of Arts & Sciences Inc., Dyckman Houses. Visit Literacy Inc. on YouTube to view: https://youtu.be/xogwpFrvt9k.

Entrance fees are waived for all of our cyclists with a collective fundraising goal of $10K in benefit of LINC. Our development team will support you with tips and tools to succeed. Pre-register now and learn more at www.lincnyc.org.

Invest in Children. Support our Work. DONATE to LINC

Text RideForReaders to 44-321 or visit:

www.lincnyc.org/donate

LINC’s Virtual Programs LINC’s VIPs Learn to Build their Future Through Strong Financial Planning On Friday May 28, LINC partnered with our friends at Cathay Bank to provide our Very Involved Parents (VIPs) a virtual workshop on developing their own spending and savings plan. This two-hour event gave parents the space to learn from financial experts, ask questions, and offer their own tricks for saving money. By sharing ideas and collaborating on ways to navigate financial challenges, participants created a productive atmosphere of community problem solving.

Thank you to Stanley Moy and Glenda Uy of Cathay Bank for your continued support of LINC’s mission and for leading this important workshop. We are grateful for your financial insight and thrilled to see such active participation of our VIPs, who lead the charge in their communities as literacy leaders and advocates. We know that parents who feel more financially secure are more confident and able to prioritize reading with their children, and Cathay Bank presented a highly practical program that is useful to our Very Involved Parents (VIPs). As our Director of Family & Community Engagement Albania Jimenez puts it, “All the little things count. We save a little bit of money here and there and at the end of the month it adds up.” Similarly, we believe that literacy is something to invest in. Day by day, our parents’ efforts transform the future of their children, our city, and our world.

ViacomCBS Volunteers Create Over 20 Bilingual Read Aloud Videos for LINC On June 17, 2021, LINC participated in our third Virtual Service Day with ViacomCBS. Volunteer employees recorded and submitted 23 bilingual videos to add to our read-aloud library. Through LINC’s Read Aloud Video Project, LINC led an orientation via Zoom and provided volunteers with a toolkit that walked them through choosing “just the right book,” how to read aloud with enthusiasm, and how to easily share their videos with us. We placed an emphasis on authentic literature for this project and asked volunteers to choose books that had characters of color, or that were written by authors of color. It is crucial for our children to see themselves reflected in the books they read, and with a number of volunteers reading in their 2

LINC LETTER - SUMMER 2021

native language, we gained a number of new Spanish read-aloud videos for our collection. These videos are incredibly useful as LINC celebrates the richness of diverse cultures and encourages families to read together in any and every language.

LINC’s Collective Impact Reaching More Families with Collective Impact: Announcing East Harlem Reads Building on the success of the Reads Initiative in South Jamaica and East New York, and with the generous support of The Pinkerton Foundation and The Carmel Hill Fund, LINC is leading a 9-month planning phase to launch East Harlem Reads. This exciting initiative will help us reach more New York City families than ever and includes a new partner, the New York Public Library. LINC’s expertise in hyperlocal community development and organizing is central to the planning process. We created an East Harlem Task Force to learn from

“We have witnessed the positive results of the Reads Initiative in South Jamaica and East New York. We are very excited to support the expansion of this collaboration of literacy providers into East Harlem and the potential impact it can have on the community. Since the pandemic, there has been a significant loss of instruction and learning time, and the extra literacy support provided through the Reads model is needed especially now.” —Danielle Pulliam, Program Officer, The Pinkerton Foundation

LINC staff who live in and are connected to the community. For more information about NYC Reads, visit: www.nycreads.org.

City’s First Readers’ New Website Connects Families in 51 Council Districts The COVID pandemic changed the way families engage with digital resources, and with the world at their fingertips, many caregivers felt overwhelmed with the volume of information available online.

Check out www.citysfirstreaders.com and see how we are able to reach families in 51 different council districts with this new site.

City’s First Readers responded! We refocused the City’s First Readers’ website, transforming it into a family-facing city-wide resource. A key feature is the dynamic activity finder that connects families to CFR partners and programs that meet their unique needs. The new design integrates learning activities and makes finding unique literacy events quick and easy. We also added a section “For Grownups” that includes a growing library of resources to support early literacy development and help caregivers raise readers with a social justice perspective. 3

LINC LETTER - SUMMER 2021

LINC’s Development LINC Kicks Off 25th Anniversary Celebration with Virtual Gala On Wednesday, May 26, 2021, LINC kicked off a full year of celebration with our 25th Anniversary Virtual Gala! Watch this truly inspiring program on YouTube at https://youtu.be/AZhkNQA3A9I to witness the growth and achievement of our kids, families, and staff over the past 25 years. We would like to thank all of our sponsors and those who gave before, during, and after the event! You can still put books in the hands of children at www.lincnyc.org/donate.

LINC 2020 Annual Report LINC’s 2020 annual report is a true testament to our proven impact, filled with stories of families connecting with each other and reading together during a difficult and isolating year. Read about their transition from parents to literacy advocates, and see how we are achieving the promise of literacy together. Download the report or read it via Issuu at www.lincnyc.org. Email: vtaddoni@lincnyc.org for Spanish or English printed copies.

Literacy Inc. P.O. Box 822 Katonah, NY 10536

*temporary mailing address When a child reads, a community succeeds!