Sacramento kept kids reading when schools closed. It just earned a national honor for the work
Sacramento this week received national recognition for a literacy program that kept kids reading when school closed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The National Civic League honored the city of Sacramento with the 2022 All-America City Award for addressing local issues through civic engagement, collaboration, inclusiveness, and innovation.
The honor recognizes organizations that have made steps toward equitable early school success and learning recovery for students in marginalized, underprivileged communities.
The Sacramento Promise Zone, an initiative directed by Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency, partnered with the nonprofit Sacramento Literacy Foundation to promote literacy, spawning their collaborative initiative, the Sacramento Promise Zone Literacy Initiative.
“It’s well-deserved,” said Mayor Darrell Steinberg. “Not because we have solved every problem before us. We have a long way to go. But because the city consistently demonstrates the spirit of innovation, collaboration, of never giving up, and building coalitions around common objectives.”
The initiative aimed to increase literacy, improve digital equity, and expand after school and out-of-school programs in the region for children in underserved, underfunded communities.
During a Tuesday press conference, Councilwoman Mai Vang called the award a ‘win’ for Sacramento but said that the city still has a long way to go to create equitable literacy practices. She noted equitable practices in literacy can help improve health quality, increase employment and decrease poverty in marginalized communities.
“This award is really amazing because it really shows that we’re slowly beginning to move the needle,” said Vang. “I say slowly because I still see the dire need in our community. And so while we celebrate our wins, we know that there are many, many more challenges ahead.”
Sacramento Literacy Foundation and SHRA’s Promise Zone partnered with organizations such as 916Ink, LifesSteps, United Way and Sacramento Chinese Community Service Center to make such efforts possible.
April Javist, executive director of the Sacramento Literacy Foundation, has been working toward this campaign for over a decade, joining the Campaign for Grade Level Reading in 2011.
She said that this award is an ‘equity play’ to create further awareness of the work that’s being done on the ground to entice local leaders to initiate literacy programs within their fiscal budgets.
“The idea here today is to hopefully get our city officials or county officials thinking about putting money from their budgets into literacy interventions,” said Jarvist. “That’s my hope.”
According to Julius Austin, Sacramento Promise Zone coordinator, a part of equitable funding in literacy is ensuring that children have books in their own homes that are a reflection of their background and ethnicity.
“We want to continue to provide books for children who live in the Promise Zone,” said Austin. “More importantly, make sure that those books are representative of the kids themselves. We know that literacy is tied to every positive outcome.”
This story was originally published August 25, 2022 at 5:25 AM.
