Hot Off The Press:
“It’s critical to include as many different members of the community as possible in this effort to ensure that every kid is a good reader because it’s important for children to feel that lots of people care deeply about how they turn out, who wish them well and want the best for them and are willing to make every effort to make it happen for them.”
-- Mimi Levin Lieber, LINC’s Founder
Our children deserve the best version of us.The 2019 annual report demonstrates our excellence in all that we do. It is with a vision of excellence that we infuse literacy across New York City and mobilize the resources that already exist in our neighborhoods to transform the lives of more than 13,500 children, and awaken the leadership potential of more than 6,800 parents.
Flip through the pages and see why LINC was named, by Nonprofit New York, as one of three finalists for Overall Management Excellence and won the 2019 award for Fundraising and Resource Development. Read about LINC’s community literacy model and learn how it empowers parents, teachers, caregivers, and community institutions with the necessary tools to ensure all children, regardless of their social and economic background have an opportunity to succeed. Through LINC’s programs, parents like Gladys Gomez are empowered to lead the change in their neighborhoods by becoming community literacy ambassadors. Gladys Gomez completed LINC’s Very Involved Parent (VIP) Academy and is now volunteering at her daughter’s school. She is also helping to recruit other families to attend our programs so that their children can also benefit from literacy. Her daughter, Matilda, moved up two reading levels. Gladys wants the same for other children. With this goal, she organizes reading events and celebrations throughout her community. Her two daughters are witnesses and helpers of her mother’s efforts.
This year has been one of unparalleled success for LINC. Our Early Childhood Program expanded by 76% since 2018. We saw a 53% increase in the number of children, under five, reached in 2019. Our work translates in real change for our families: 75% of parents with children younger than five report reading five or more days a week to their child; 90% of the same group of parents know the importance of reading to their child from the day they are born; 89% of parents make the reading experience engaging by asking questions about the story and pictures.
LINC doesn’t act in isolation. We create interconnected networks that further support our families. We engage close to 150 organizations and institutions at the local level, and facilitate three collective impact initiatives to maximize resources in support of literacy.
Solving the literacy crisis has been an obsession for our founder Mimi levin Lieber and for LINC over the past 24 years. I hope you will be inspired to join us in our mission. If you are a supporter of LINC, please know that everything we accomplished was possible because of you. If you are new to LINC, please join our movement!
