LINC LETTER
Breaking News: Senator Schumer
Secures Early Literacy Funding for LINC
Learning Through Mexican Music and Storytelling
Celebrate Mexico Now resumed their in-person festival, and Literacy Inc. was at the forefront of this ground-breaking event.
QUETZALCOATL: Aztec Tales, Legends, and Music, brought music, dance, books, and stories to families in East Harlem and Washington Heights. The talented multilingual Mexican storyteller Valentina Ortiz, a recipient of Mexico’s Ministry of culture grant, blended Nahuatl and Aztec tales with music to make old legends come alive. Families connected with the Mexican traditions and language, dancing and singing along to the violins, trumpets, and guitars of The Mariachi Angeles de Nueva York, another special guest.
Music and storytelling have the capacity to convey long-standing traditions while building listening skills that are critical to achieving reading proficiency. As with books, these integral art forms serve to affirm a child’s own cultural heritage while opening up new worlds of knowledge and discovery.
State Senator, Robert Jackson, and Assemblyman, Manny De Los Santos, participated with a proclamation in honor of Isabel Navarro, an education advocate, founder of Casa Mexico. We thank our friends and partners for this extraordinary opportunity to engage New York City’s youngest readers.
LINC is proud to announce that Senator Chuck Schumer championed and secured funding for LINC’s Community Literacy Model as part of the federal budget President Biden signed into law on December 29, 2022. We celebrate the US Senate’s prioritization of children and its recognition of the critical role literacy plays in advancing equity and democracy.
We are grateful to Senator Schumer and also to Senator Gillibrand and our board for their resolute advocacy for children’s access to early education.
Winter 2023
The Mariachi musicians of Escuela de Mariachi Angeles de Nueva York.
LINC’s Growing Movement
Honoring Our Greatest Partners: Parents
“LINC programs are inspirational and I so am proud to be a partner. It is important that parents be there every step of the way. It requires many efforts and hours, and is a responsibility to your family and your community. There is nothing we cannot do if we do it together!” Assemblymember Yudelka Tapia addressed the graduating class of LINC’s Very Involved Parents (VIPs) at The Bronx Zoo.
Near the end of 2022, LINC welcomed two new cohorts of Very Involved Parents (VIPs) with official graduation ceremonies in The Bronx and South Jamaica. These VIPs are the latest graduates of LINC’s extensive literacy training program, over 100 in total who received completion certificates along with accolades from elected officials in their districts.
During each volunteer training, parents learn to promote early literacy in their community, host reading programs with LINC, get more involved in their child’s academic success, and build their own home
libraries. LINC’s VIP Program prepares them to become literacy leaders in their own communities. We are so proud and grateful to these graduates. It is with their help that LINC is able to transform lives through literacy!
It’s All About Family Connection: LINC Partners with MoneyGram/Visa
Literacy Inc. (LINC) is thrilled to announce a new partnership with sponsors, MoneyGram/Visa, to help them promote a fast, safe, and convenient way to transfer funds to loved ones around the world.
When you send funds with MoneyGram and use the Visa Debit Card Deposit receive option, MoneyGram will move your money through Visa’s global network in real time and funds will arrive in your recipient’s account in *30 minutes or less (*dependent on receiving financial institution and region). It’s simple, efficient, and, best of all, your family and friends don’t have to wait in line to get their money because it will post to their bank balance automatically.
LINC is happy to support MoneyGram/Visa and share this initiative with our families. As we link parents, caregivers and community members with
resources to help them raise young readers, we are grateful for this technology that will bring them closer to their family members abroad.
By sponsoring key events in Washington Heights and Inwood from December through February, MoneyGram/Visa has the opportunity to meet and engage with LINC families to build brand awareness about their products and services. From a Parent Teacher Association meeting at Public School 189 to a Winter Wonderland reading celebration at the Dyckman Houses NYCHA development, MoneyGram/VISA has already helped LINC unlock resources and opportunities for the families we serve.
For more information or to try it now, visit: https://www.moneygram.com/send-to-a-debit-card.
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Over 100 LINC VIPs, in total were honored in South Jamaica (above) and The Bronx (below).
Winter Friends Visit Little Readers in South Jamaica
On Saturday, December 10, the South Jamaica Reads Initiative (SJQ) spread a whole lot of cheer, along with the joy of reading, at the annual Holidays on the Avenue festival in South Jamaica, Queens. This tradition, started by Cultural Collaborative Jamaica (CCJ) in 1995, was back by popular demand with well over 350 children in attendance outside the King Manor Museum. In addition to story time, families enjoyed free workshops, arts and crafts, music, photos with Santa, and yes, gifts!
The SJQ Reads Initiative gave away tons of books alongside the Queens library. Stories and songs were inspired by LINC’s animal of
the month, D.E.E.R. (Drop Everything, Enjoy Reading) and staff were delighted to see one of LINC’s Very Involved Parents (VIPs), Cemal Williams, under Santa Claus’s beard. Cemal, a former PS48Q parent, now has a seven-month-old daughter and remains committed to literacy advocacy in South Jamaica.
Guest author Tami Charles read her classic story All Because You Matter. Tami spoke about her son’s struggle with feeling seen and cared for as a young black boy, and her decision to write All Because You Matter to remind her son and the many children like him how deeply loved, cared for, and special they are. In fact, her son came to celebrate the
Spreading the Word: January 16-20 was CFR Week
Four times a year, the 17 organizations that comprise City’s First Readers (CFR) celebrate CFR Week by promoting early literacy in their community. The first CFR week of the new year took place from January 1620, 2023. As part of this new campaign, the partners distributed packets containing:
• A welcome letter and brochure about CFR
• Information about how to get a library card
• An activity card with a chance to win a $50 gift card
• A QR code that enables families to easily connect to CFR programs
• A variety of books
CFR partner organizations help busy families find ways to bring reading activities into daily chores
holidays and listen to his mother’s story with us! Each family went home with a signed copy of All Because You Matter.
like cooking, cleaning and shopping at the grocery store. Every opportunity to practice pre-reading skills like talking, playing, writing, singing and reading with their families helps them enter kindergarten ready to learn. Spread the word, visit: www.citysfirstreaders.com.
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LINC’s Collective Impact
