Literacy

Developed by the National Black Child Development Institute (NBCDI) in 2017, the Read to Succeed program is designed to promote early literacy and language development by supporting families with young children in establishing home libraries with culturally relevant and developmentally appropriate children’s books and supplementary resources. With generous support from the United Parcel Service (UPS) Foundation, the goal of our initiative is to empower Black families with effective and practical knowledge, tools, and resources to equip their young children with the early language and literacy skills needed to ensure their early academic success.

Highlighted outcomes from our literacy program include:

• In Spring 2020, NBCDI continued to increase our programmatic impact by serving 4,241 children, parents, caregivers, and educators through the distribution of 13,257 children’s books. 
• Due to our partnership with The Clinton Foundation’s Too Small to Fail, NBCDI is set to disseminate an additional 14,575 books to young children and families across our National Affiliate Network through our literacy partnership in 2020.
• In 2019, NBCDI served over 4,148 children, parents and caregivers by distributing 12,444 children’s books in our Read to Succeed program alone
• In 2018, more than 5,058 children, parents, and caregivers were impacted through the distribution of 6,265 books. 
• Between 2017 and 2018, Read to Succeed has increased its programmatic impact among children and families by 297% and more than doubled the number of books distributed.

NBCDI’s Read to Succeed program has been implemented with our Affiliates and partners in:

• Albany, NY
• Charlotte, NC
• Chicago, IL
• Denver, CO
• Detroit, MI
• Fort Lauderdale, FL
• Miami, FL
• Poughkeepsie, NY
• Sacramento, CA
• Washington, DC

According to a 2016 study led by the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development at New York University (NYU):

• Access to print resources—board books, stories, and informational books—early on has both immediate and long-term effects on children’s vocabulary, background knowledge, and comprehension skills.
• While public libraries are critically important in giving families access to books, the presence of books in the home is related to children's reading achievement.

Research shows that children often need to see themselves in books to become strong, avid readers. In a survey of over 2,000 educators from First Book schools and programs in 2015, “90 percent of respondents indicated that the children in their programs would be more enthusiastic readers if they had access to books with characters, stories, and images that reflect their lives and their communities.”

When children see characters that reflect their own identity in the books they read, they feel validated, gaining a strong sense of confidence and pride in themselves, their experiences, and their culture.

For more information, please click here to download our Read to Succeed one-page overview.