Inspired by our live coverage of Diversity Through Literacy on Pix11 on Thursday, July 7 News Anchor Victor Javier Solano of WXTV Univsion* requested an interview with Literacy Inc. in order to share LINC’s resources with his viewers. On Friday, July 8, Victor conducted an interview with LINC’s Senior Director of Family and Community Mobilization, Albania Jimenez, in Spanish, to learn about the purpose of this campaign and LINC’s mission.
"Well, we started our second campaign of Diversity Through Literacy. And what do we want to accomplish with that? Well, bring more representation that looks like our children with the books in our communities. Therefore, yesterday we started to distribute more than one thousand books donated by our partner Fidelis Care, a campaign that we started with them last year to be able to give books in all of the neighborhoods where LINC works, across New York City."
Albania discussed LINC’s celebration of Juneteenth at the start of our efforts, reiterated the significance of diversity and representation in children's literature, and emphasized the importance of reading during the summer to minimize learning loss.
"Well, you know that during the pandemic we went through many traumas because not only did the parents need to worry about reading, but there were too many things on which to focus our attention. We know that if children don’t read, well they start to be left behind, and it is a problem that we have in our present day."
Equity begins with early literacy and LINC works to ensure that every child has access to the foundational resources needed for academic achievement, whether they be books or parent workshops.
"With this participation, they are going to get to know other programs and also, we give them books to take home and tools for them to continue working with their children in the summer."
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The Diversity Through Literacy campaign culminated with a virtual program on The ABCs of Black History with author Rio Cortez on July 22.
We are grateful to Univision, Albania, Fidelis Care, and all of our staff and supporters. Because of you, our programs are growing and we reach more children every day.
To learn about LINC's upcoming programs, visit us at www.lincncy.org/onlineprograms.
* Univision is an American Spanish-language free-to-air television network owned by TelevisaUnivision. It is the United States' largest provider of Spanish-language content.