Goals

Over the lifespan of the NL Reads campaign, Open Books seeks to achieve two overarching goals:

• To increase the number of prenatal-to-5 children in North Lawndale who are school-ready when they enter Kindergarten
• To increase the number of students in North Lawndale who meet or exceed grade-level reading benchmarks

To achieve these goals, Open Books and its partners will focus on four initial objectives:

• Community Engagement.  To deepen social cohesion and connection among North Lawndale residents toward stronger family interactions, particularly related to reading and literacy
• Community Events.  To facilitate participation in community-wide events that promote culturally-relevant literature and the joy and importance of reading
• “Placemaking”.  To leverage new and existing spaces, from small businesses to homes, to provide books and promote literacy skills development and social-emotional supports for both children and adults
• Message Saturation.  To disseminate key messages that encourage and support child literacy development

Strategies & Activities

Open Books, its partners at the Steans Family Foundation, and the NL Reads Steering Committee – made up of representatives from nearly 30 organizations – have targeted the following activities to carry out the campaign’s objectives:

• Promoting and expanding early learning initiatives
• Training families to better leverage daily reading and the promotion of regular reading habits
• Increasing home visits to educate parents and caregivers about at-home supports of child reading
• Increasing book access through book granting and the formation of “book nooks” in community spaces
• Developing activities and events connected to Playful Learning Landscapes
• Holding celebratory and educational community events that incorporate literacy and literacy resources
• Leveraging media and communication vehicles to publicize key messages regarding literacy
• Providing technical assistance to families (e.g., universal preK enrollment) to increase access to vital resources

In collaboration with Neighbor to Neighbor Literacy Project, Friends of the Parks, and Chicago Cares, Open Books is flooding the neighborhood with books. This map shows the location of Little Free Libraries located in North Lawndale. These boxes are supplied with fresh, engaging books on a consistent basis to provide free access to literature on an ongoing basis.