Friend,
Reading is essential to our lives—opening possibilities, helping us realize our dreams and creating confidence. Whether you’re a kid in rural West Virginia, the suburbs of Texas or a shelter in New York City, opening a book means you’re opening the world.
But reading is hard without books. That’s why the AFT is launching the Reading Opens the World campaign—to give children and young people free books to read, love and keep, and to open their world.
Learn more about Reading Opens the World by watching our new video now.
This campaign is a long-term investment in supporting parents, caregivers, teachers and support staff as they support their students and children in first learning to read, and then reading to learn.
After the two years of disruption and isolation that kids, families and communities have endured as a result of the pandemic, we’re launching this campaign today with our friends at First Book and the AFL-CIO because this multipronged investment can’t wait.
Together, we’re building on and forging new connections between families, communities, educators and schools as partners in students’ literacy. In addition to giving children and young people free books—more than 1,000,000!—we’re providing teachers and school staff with the tools and professional development to translate the science of reading into useable resources to help students read and read well. And we’re giving parents and caregivers fun and research-based tips and tools to support their kids’ reading.
Click here to learn about our goal to distribute a million books to kids and families.
Reading Opens the World is designed to support students, educators and families and foster an ongoing love of reading—because reading is foundational to everything we do.
Stay tuned for more information. Until then, please share our new video with your friends and family to help us spread joy, hope and connection this holiday season, and foster a love of reading throughout the school community.
In unity,
Randi Weingarten
AFT President
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