March is National Reading Awareness Month, and the National Education Association (NEA) declared March 2 as Read Across America Day! NEA’s Read Across America is now in its 19th year of providing year-round programs that focus on motivating children and teens to read through events, partnerships, and reading resources. Schools and communities throughout the United States actively partake in Read Across America Day to influence children and teens to read during this day and every day.

The “I Have a Dream” Foundation – Los Angeles knows the importance of reading and literacy for each child’s individual success, as well as the positive impact it has for society as a whole. According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), children in families with incomes below the poverty line are less likely to be read aloud to everyday than are children in families with incomes at or above poverty. In addition, the Center found that only 53% of children ages three to five were read to daily by a family member. At IHADLA, we recognize the importance of reading to children from a young age to encourage literacy and help children perceive reading as a fun, enjoyable activity.

Reading to Achieve at IHADLA

The “I Have a Dream” Foundation – Los Angeles realizes that working with our Dreamers from a young age is integral in helping them become successful students and contributing members of society. Reading is a cornerstone of our student Dreamers’ academic and overall life success.

Our program coordinators are finding that many of the students are at least a grade level behind in reading and often do not catch up to their current grade level unless intervention occurs by the 3rd grade. IHADLA works with students starting in the 3rd grade to assure that students are receiving academic help to improve reading literacy and other important academic skills. To directly address this issue in our programming, we have instituted reading groups and circles during our after-school program. Our Dreamers are working toward improving their reading skills every day with the help of our program coordinators, program assistants, and our volunteers and interns. Thanks to book donations from Cuento de Luz and various IHADLA supporters, our Dreamers have a wide variety of beautiful, enriching books to choose from and their IHADLA library is also growing!

IHADLA is proud to recognize March as National Reading Awareness Month! If you are interested in donating books for children ages 5-18, please contact Marc at Marc@IHADLA.org