Louisiana Reads!

Program Overview

In 2021, the Center for Development and Learning launched Louisiana Reads!, an initiative to promote at-home reading opportunities through literacy awareness, book distribution and direct-service to families. This initiative aims to tackle the literacy crisis through quality content delivery to caretakers of children, promotion of active parent engagement, and building community partnerships. Through this project, we have the goal of merging classroom instruction and practice with at-home learning guidance through reading.

In partnership with Young, Black, and Lit, New Orleans Public Library, and select New Orleans elementary schools, Louisiana Reads! will provide parents of children PreK-3 with resources and training to increase parents' knowledge and confidence in language-based learning for their children, utilizing read aloud strategies to foster those learning opportunities. These strategies include how to guide the child through reading, how to interact with the book, how to ask questions throughout the book that has the child critically thinking, things that foster creativity, and connecting stories to real-life situations. Participating families will receive a book bundle with age-appropriate children's books featuring Black and brown, positively-reflected characters. This will enable families to increase access to children's books that center, reflect, and affirm children by providing them with mirrored possibilities in print.

If your organization or school is interested in partnering with the Center for Development and Learning to bring Louisiana Reads! to your community, please contact our Vice President of Program Development at DeJunne@cdl.org.