New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, Councilmember Rita Joseph, the Brooklyn Public Library and Jumpstart for Young Children are celebrating an allocation of over $5 million in City Council funding for early childhood literacy programs.
The funding will assist the City Council’s City’s First Readers initiative in supporting nonprofit organizations that provide programming to help children five years old and younger to build their reading skills and attain reading proficiency by third grade.
“Reading and storytelling give us the power to understand the world around us and connect with each other in a meaningful way,” said Adams. “The Council is proud to support literacy programming through our $5.5 million allocation to fund the City’s First Readers initiative, including $438,000 for the Brooklyn Public Library. Through continued investments in our public libraries and educational programs, we can advance efforts to improve reading proficiency for students that equip them with the resources to succeed.”
In the Fiscal Year 2024 budget, the City Council allocated nearly $5.5 million through the City’s First Readers initiative to fund 17 organizations across the city. This includes $438,114 each for both BPL and Jumpstart. Over the past three years, programs funding by the initiative have engaged over 2.2 million families, distributed over one million books and delivered over 8,000 literacy workshops across New York City.
“The Brooklyn Public Library serves as a lifeline to families in District 40. From providing a safe space for our youth to being a resource hub, our libraries do it all,” said Joseph. “Educating the whole child with community support is crucial to achieving the best outcomes in the educational journey for our students. Organizations under City's First Readers make it easier to expand the importance of literacy not only throughout our school system but also throughout the community. P.S 139's success is attributed to its focus on meaningful engagement with institutions that support students and their families like our local public libraries.”
In coordination with Jumpstart’s 18th Annual Read for the Record campaign, Joseph led staff and students of P.S. 139 in a shared reading of "With Lots of Love" by Jenny Torres Sanchez, a beautiful story that brings children and adults together through the unifying power of family, food and culture.
The Read for the Record campaign is a global celebration in which millions of children and adults around the world read the same book on the same day to promote the importance of early literacy.
