Children’s Literacy Initiative seeks to dismantle structural racism by providing Black and Latinx children with the anti-racist early literacy instruction, support, and advocacy needed to create equity in education.

Literacy is a practice of justice and joy, and Children's Literacy Initiative is committed to supporting children and teachers in this pursuit. Our vision is that Black and Latinx children learn to read as a powerful act of identity, agency, and cultural joy, propelling them into a future where they are not only informed and active participants in their communities but also torchbearers of their rich heritage and narratives, fostering a world of understanding, inclusivity, and boundless possibilities.

Source: Nonprofit submitted responses

Goal One: Providing tailored Literacy Program Design services leveraging leading edge research in culturally sustaining instruction and the Science of Reading that considers each school's unique context.

Goal Type: This goal reflects our commitment to further our advocacy work for our organization and or cause area.

Goal Two: Emphasizing sustainable outcomes in professional learning, offering specialized coaching and workshops, equipping educators and leaders to drive culturally sustaining literacy initiatives.

Goal Type: This goal reflects our commitment to further our advocacy work for our organization and or cause area.

Goal Three: Providing literacy professional resources including curation of diverse classroom book collections and online asynchronous literacy instructional videos and downloadable resources for educators.

Goal Type: This goal reflects our commitment to further our advocacy work for our organization and or cause area.

Describe an investment in leadership

We have expanded our notions of leadership to embrace shared responsibility, champion social justice, and recognize that every member of our CLI team possesses both the potential and the duty to lead. Practical steps toward our investments in leadership development include the Executive Team's participation in Bridgespan's "Leading for Impact" leadership training program. Furthermore, we have introduced a leadership role dedicated to the continuous evolution of CLI coaches as instructional leaders. Reflecting this advancement, we've transitioned the title of our coaches from Early Literacy Specialists to Literacy Instructional Leaders. We maintain regular intervals of DEI professional learning led by subject matter experts on staff, enabling CLI to continuously refine and implement organizational DEI strategies more effectively.

This organization mobilizes for mission in the following ways:

• Strategic Partnerships

• Networks of Collective Impact Efforts

• Thought Leadership

• Raising Awareness

What are this organization’s external mobilizaton efforts?

Children’s Literacy Initiative (CLI) has placed itself at the forefront of literacy education through its research-based teaching and coaching methods, as well as its continued rigor in pursuing community partnerships in its service markets. CLI is currently working within communities to foster valuable partnerships where Black and Latinx families have historically been disenfranchised by an inequitable education system. These community partnerships, bolstered by recent structural changes at CLI that include creating community-focused district representatives, will help CLI respond more directly to the needs of specific districts and their community histories. This, alongside a more robust major giving plan that focuses on providing organizational longevity and increased scope of services, is vital to pursuing CLI’s mission.

Even amid an ever-changing socio-political education landscape, CLI's unwavering commitment to early childhood literacy stands firm: to cultivate spaces where children can engage with the transformative power of reading, seeing it not merely as a skill, but a profound liberatory act that heralds lifelong success. In the face of growing efforts to ban culturally sustaining and identity-affirming books in classrooms nationwide, Children's Literacy Initiative remains resolute in its dedication to amplify the rich, high-quality narratives found in diverse children's books. Drawing on a social justice-driven approach to literacy instruction, CLI has been at the forefront of advocating for changes to the system of reading instruction that determines not just what children are taught along their reading journeys, but also how they are taught. In the wake of COVID-19, we recognize the urgency of adopting a more holistic and integrated approach to literacy instruction. Our goal is to do more than just address "learning loss" — we aim to transform reading outcomes for Black and Latinx children, who, despite their genius and potential, have often been denied access to high-quality, culturally sustaining literacy instruction. While many look to the horizons of change and progress within the field of K-12 education skepticism or fear, Children's Literacy Initiative dares to imagine a world where the narratives of every child are celebrated, where the power of words not only instructs but also liberates, and where the rich tapestry of diverse tales becomes the cornerstone of every child's education.