Boston Saves is now available to every K2 student in Boston Public Schools! We have learned a lot in the three years of the Boston Saves pilot and are looking forward to engaging all K2 families in BPS with the program. Boston Saves is a children’s savings account program from the City of Boston and Boston Public schools. Through Boston Saves, every K2 student in BPS will receive an account with $50 for their future college or career training. In support of Kindergarten students returning back to school on September 9th, ReadBoston handed out Boston Saves crayon packs to K2 students at schools around the city. Thank you to all of the volunteers who helped ensure that all K2 students received their crayons!
The Carter School is a Boston Public School where students age12 to 22 present with both severe, intensive disabilities and complex health needs. Due to these unique challenges, each classroom is composed of five students, one teacher, and two teaching assistants. Students also work one-on-one with a variety of therapists. ReadBoston is proud to support the students at the Carter School with a monthly read-aloud session. Students will receive a new book to add to their home libraries.
Little Free Libraries are small boxes created for community members to exchange books that they are no longer reading. Many of the neighborhoods ReadBoston serves are labeled book deserts because residents do not have regular access to high-quality books. This summer we noticed that the little free library at the Gertrude Howes Park in Roxbury could use our help. After a few inquiries, we located another Little Free Library on Mattapan Street in Mattapan that was built by Mr. Tooley. He was very happy to see ReadBoston giving his project the attention it needed. There are now 20 new children’s titles inside this Little Free Library. Stop by either the Little Free Library at Gertrude Howes Park or on Mattapan Street to leave a book and/or take a book! And let us know if you know of a Little Free Library in your neighborhood that could use a little TLC!
The Daddy & Me Literacy Program at Hawthorne Youth and Community Center is back in full swing! On September 15th we had our first session of the 2019-2020 school year and our numbers have doubled since this time last year! At our next session on October 20th from 12 pm – 2 pm we will have local author Veronica N. Chapman share her book “King Khalid Is Proud”. Please join us!
The seventh annual Fatherhood Leadership Summit was sponsored by the Department of Children and Families. City and state-wide organizations that support families come to the conference to learn new information about the best ways to engage with families. The conference also promotes organizations to cross collaborate on projects and initiatives. Our Program Manager attended this year’s Father Leadership Summit and was fortunate enough to meet Jose Monteiro, Coordinator of the Department Children and Families Southeast Region.
The Nurtury Learning Lab located in Jamaica Palin has partnered with ReadBoston for the second year. Our monthly guest reader sessions began on September 17th. In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, the children learned about Tito Puente. The story “Tito Puente, Mambo King” is a great picture book for children learn how a young boy’s interest in playing drums led him to world recognition.
The Suffolk County Nashua street jail I-Can Academy is a program provides the inmates with liberating educational tools within the context of history, society, and community. ReadBoston is collaborating with I-Can Academy to help serve the incarcerated dads involved in the program by showing them the importance of early literacy. In our first session on September 19th, each participant received a copy of “Papa Gave Me a Stick”. This program will conclude with a family visit celebration where the dads will read to their children using the skills they have developed in the program.
Last year we began our book club with the children of the Roxbury Tenants of Harvard After School. By the end of the school year, we had tripled participation. This school year we are returning to the afterschool every other week. We are excited to continue to work with the children in the Mission Park development.
The Martin Luther King School in Dorchester invited ReadBoston to be a guest reader in support of Storytime Crafts’ Kindness Project. Storytime Crafts creates beautiful furniture using illustrations from popular children’s books. We read “A Picture Book of Martin Luther King, Jr.”, by David A. Adler with the first graders, followed by Storytime Crafts’ presentation of a custom made MLK-themed chair for the school library.
