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| Last updated on April 14, 2008 |
Change the world - one magazine at a time!
The Magazine Publishers Family Literacy Project (MagazineLiteracy.org) is the first and only nationwide, magazine industry-wide campaign to help children and families learn to read and to build their self-esteem.
MagazineLiteracy.org devises innovative programs that foster community and business partnerships to get magazines into the hands, homes, and hearts of children and families so they can learn and love to read.
Learning how to read is vital to a child's ability to succeed in every school subject and in life. Adults unable to read were once children who did not learn how.
MagazineLiteracy.org unleashes the awesome potential of magazines as a powerful literacy resource for teachers, early-learning programs, after-school programs, boys and girls clubs, homeless and domestic violence shelters, child advocacy and foster care programs, and other literacy agents who are passionate about helping kids and families learn to read.
Description:
Objectives:
- broadly promote kids magazines as a powerful literacy resource;
- partner with magazine publishers, corporate and community sponsors, and consumers to pay for subscriptions for needy children;
- engage "literacy agents" - schools, libraries and other community organizations - to follow-up with kids to help build reading skills and self-esteem;
- work with magazine publishers and editors, as well as other media and partners to spotlight and to celebrate magazine-based literacy programs and to design special promotions and new approaches for engaging the American public in the social challenge of illiteracy among youth-at-risk and families;
- forge partnerships with national, state, regional and grassroots organizations and government agencies dedicated to improving reading skills, especially of kids.
Studies show that children at or near the poverty line are much less likely to have reading materials at home. By arranging for magazines, the program puts valuable reading materials into homes on a regular schedule. When a child's name is printed on the label, along with the added confidence associated with learning to read, the Project helps to build that child's self-esteem. Children are linked to the Project via "Literacy Agents" - schools, libraries, shelters, and other community-based programs dedicated to building the reading skills of participating kids and families. Literacy agents devise their own reading program specifications and evaluation criteria, and monitor program effectiveness against those targets. Literacy agents report on their progress, providing valuable lessons and models that can be replicated in other communities.
History:
I imagined launching a program that would celebrate children's magazines as a vital literacy resource in 1994 and have, since then, worked to nurture and develop the initiative, including outreach and organizing pilot programs. Feedback from literacy agents - such as schools, reading programs, homeless and domestic abuse shelters, and foster care programs - has underscored a compelling need for matching magazine subscriptions to children and families who would otherwise not be able to afford them. Outreach to sponsors, including individuals, corporations, and children's and consumer magazine publishers, has shown that there is strong interest and generous support for taking the project to the next level so that more children and families can be reached.
John Mennell
Founder
Contact person: John Mennell, Executive Director, (609) 651-4340, (email)
Office fax number: (609) 651-4341
Address:
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66 Witherspoon St. No. 207
Princeton, NJ 08542
(See a map) |
Web Site: http://magazineliteracy.org/
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