Guest Post By Donna Beasley.

In Chicago, 49% of 4th graders are below basic levels of reading proficiency. And 30 % of adults in
Chicago—882,000 people—also have low basic literacy skills. Those are challenging statistics, but
Chicago Literacy Alliance (CLA) is up for the task of meeting the literacy needs here. The CLA’s relatively new, co-working space called, the Literacenter is home to several non-profit literacy organizations and literacy focused start-ups businesses.

I like to say that Chicago Literary Alliance’s 100+ members have found at least 100 different ways to
encourage reluctant readers. Each organization has a different and unique approach to their individual literacy goals. Together, the CLA membership is on the frontline working towards the BIG goal of a 100% functionally literate Chicago.

Here is a snapshot of some of the work being done by CLA members. Though in this article I can’t detail all 100 of them, I’ve chosen four to highlight: Leading With Literacy, Literacy Chicago, SitStayRead, and my publishing house, KaZoom Kids Books. With CLA itself, that makes five powerful ways for people in Chicago to increase their love of reading.

1. SitStayRead: For The Love Of Dogs And Reading

One of my favorite CLA members is SitStayRead.org. At a recent community book fair my booth was directly across from theirs. I was having trouble getting a little boy interested in a book when their celebrity guest arrived: a big, dog with long, fluffy black hair. He had a bandana tied around his neck that said, Sit, Stay, Read. I suggested the little boy go and meet the dog and see if he was in a book. It turned out that all their books feature a dog.

SitStayRead provides year-round programming for low-income students in first through third grades in Chicago Public Schools. They teach reluctant child readers by using books which feature dogs and they actually take the certified dogs into the classrooms. The dog teams visit the classrooms over 8 weeks. They teach reading fluency, comprehension, and written expression.

2. KaZoom Kids Books: Stories For All Kids

  At KaZoom Kids Books, we strive to encourage a love of reading in Black and Latino children ages 3 to 8 by creating children’s storybooks with people that look like them, their families and their community. Our books have sight, sound, motion, animation and read-along narration to engage reluctant readers in a fun and interesting way.

When I toured the CLA Literacenter looking for co-working space, it was love after the first walk-through. There were adults being tutored to read, coaches giving writing workshops, and entrepreneurs trying to solve problems to improve schools. It was the perfect place for our digital publishing business, KaZoom Kids Books to fit right in.

3. Leading With Literacy’s Real Men Read

Michael Neal started Leading With Literacy’s Real Men Read program with one single goal in mind. He wanted to have men read to children in elementary schools. He wanted children to know, especially boys, that’s its cool to read. The first school he went to had an all-female staff. Even the building custodian was a woman. So it was a really big deal for the kids to have a man read them a book. And

even more impactful that he came back week after week with a new story. Now, Leading With Literacy has enough male volunteers to read to children in 10 Chicago schools.

4. Literacy Chicago – Tutoring Adults

Another CLA member is Literacy Chicago, a 25-year-old non-profit serving adults who have low basic literacy skills. They service 500 adults in numerous Chicago neighborhoods with tuition-free classes and/or one-on-one basic tutoring. Their tutors also teach English as a second language; and their citizenship programs help students pass naturalization exam. Since the Literacenter’s co-working space has open seating I often hear the students sitting with the tutors trying new words, reading sentences, and getting excited when they finish an entire page of a book. It’s a wonderful moment for me when someone of any age discovers the joy of reading.

Annually they publish their book, Words on the Page, a compilation of the writing of the adult students
they serve. One of the students, Mr. Warfield wrote:

“My life has changed because of the Literacy Chicago Program. I am a 67 year- old man, born in
Mississippi on a plantation. I have been living in Chicago for 46 years. I ran my own business without knowing how to read or write.”

5. CLA: Thousands of Hours For Literacy

The members of the Chicago Literacy Alliance (CLA) serve 3.6 million people in Chicago from early childhood through adults. They provide tens of thousands of hours of literacy programming and hundreds of thousands of books are given away each year. I think Erin McCann, Literacenter’s community manager, sums it up best:

“Members of the Chicago Literacy Alliance, are all working on solving a problem, not simply shaking our heads at it. The people that come through the doors here are heroes because they are working towards a solution, either through their work or through their desire for self-improvement.”

About Our Guest Post Author:

Donna Beasley is President/Publisher of KaZoom Kids Books, an interactive, multicultural children’sdigital publishing company. She is also the author of the children’s books, Music In The Family and Kason’s Kite. Website: www.KazoomKidsBooks.com. Reach out to her at: Donna@kazoomkidsbooks.com