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You are looking at video from Reading Partners Newark. I have 3 ladies here in studio with me. Let's talk about the fact that these kids learn differently nowadays than we did. Yes, yes, Stella. I mean, reading is so fundamentally important. And uh learning is important and we recognize that kids pull from different modalities now than they did when we were growing up. There was no social media when we were growing up and I think what's really important is we have to know how to reach them. We have to recognize what kids need. Margaret, I know you have grandkids and you understand that they learn and what they what engages them is very different than, you know, what I knew as a child. Absolutely, absolutely. Are you amazed, Margaret, at how efficient and proficient. They are with technology at such young ages. Yes, it is amazing how, how quickly they pick up they under they're comfortable with screens and, and, uh, social media, and it's so wonderful how you reintegrate whether it's a book or they're working on the screen, um, it, it comes very, very quickly when you get their attention and that's all again meeting them where they are talked about that before, that's right. Well, and I think in. You know, we know that inequities are only amplified in times of crisis and so when you think about the pandemic, it was a hard time for organizations like Reading Partners and so many other organizations that do great work in communities with other nonprofits or with schools you weren't able to be there in person. You were talking about as a professor, as a teacher you couldn't necessarily go on campus, right? And so, um, Reading Partners Connects allowed us to support children virtually and being able to continue to extend that. Into the work that we're doing in Newark really truly allows us to do two things meet kids where they are, but also truly be able to exponentially increase our impact. How are kids brought into this program? How they were first, yes, so in my role I'm responsible for building our partnerships and our growth here in New Jersey. And so, uh, we, uh, have started in Newark. We have received funding from the Green Light Fund. I like to say they gave us the green light to come into Newark and, uh, with that, so I'm working to find. Partners in the city of Newark who who want to do the tutoring, so I wanna give a big shout out right now. We're currently working with the Urban League of Essex County, the Boys and Girls Club, uh, Saint Benedict's Preparatory School. Like some of those are some of the schools right now and partners, community partners that we're working with that are doing the tutoring. We have public schools. Public Schools is a great partner and we have a host. I, I mean there's so many partners that we have. I can't list all of them right now, but we're so grateful for all of our partners that are even partnering for tutoring or family engagement.

https://vod.prod.alticeustech.com/transcode/53efb607-de9a-4370-bc6f-a677aa3a89b2/53efb607-de9a-4370-bc6f-a677aa3a89b2.transcribe

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We are putting the spotlight on Reading Partners Newark. Adeola Whitney is the CEO. Doctor Naima Ricks is the managing director, and of course we have Margaret LaSalla who is a volunteer tutor. We all know it takes a village to raise children and teach them. What is the community involvement like with this group? Yes, I love that. I am Nigerian and so that is a Yoruba proverbs, so I just love that you use that. It takes a village. What we know at Reading Partners is that, uh, to do great work with a community you can't do it to the community or for the community. You must do it with the community and that's what we do and I think um. Newark, New Jersey is a great example of that. Everyone has wrapped their arms around reading partners in the work that we're doing from the city government to businesses to other organizations to the school community. They want us to do this with them and so it's important for us to understand the community from partnering with the local bookstore, the only black bookstore in Newark sources of knowledge and getting a number of our books from them and partnering with them. Maima hosts family engagement workshops there, so just really finding ways to ensure that we find volunteer tutors from the um from the city. um, thanks to you I was able to meet a number of our volunteers and one of the volunteers was a parent who had 3 kids who had gone through the district, had gone through the system, and she said I want to give back. So that's really important to us or Margaret, who's also in Essex County and wanted to make a difference. I think to us it's really about recognizing that as Naima said before we're part of an ecosystem and our job is to really make sure that we understand the local community and it's it's an exchange of ideas. Everyone what binds us all together is we all have this innate belief that every child can reach their full potential and Reading partners just wants to do a small part of that with the community and partnering. I was going to ask you, Doctor Ricks. How do you feel? How long have you worked with this program, #1? And then when you see it come full circle and people want to get back? Oh, that's a great question. So I'm new to reading partners, new ish. I like to say newish new ish. I've been with the organization for about 6 months, but I have already seen the impact that we have already served the students, and even Margaret can tell you from our students that she worked with over the summer and just seeing them grow and seeing them, their literacy scores. Improved just from their our simple tutoring models and so it's just so impactful our work that we're doing in the community and even like Ola mentioned it's it's more than just like you know us like going out and having community uh family workshops we're also we're setting up tables at local community fairs we're going to back to school nights and we're finding ways to give resources to families and is really supporting uh again in that holistic realm of supporting literacy in the city of Newark.

https://vod.prod.alticeustech.com/transcode/a84a771f-c202-49a7-8012-a007a51613ef/a84a771f-c202-49a7-8012-a007a51613ef.transcribe

CEO Adeola Whitney, Managing Director Dr. Naima Ricks and volunteer tutor Margaret Lascala joined News 12’s Della Crews to talk more about the organization’s mission.

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