Sweet Chaos, a theater project co-founded by our Advisory Council member Rebecca Bellingham and Katharine Powell Roman, invites you to the world premiere of "Tipping Points" on September 28th at 7pm. The show explores the complexity and humor of family life in a series of short plays written by award-winning playwrights. Sweet Chaos is generously donating proceeds from ticket sales to fund home libraries for the families LitWorld serves in Harlem. Reserve your tickets today.
LitWorld Joining Global Collaboration Day - Thursday, September 17th
On Thursday September 17th, LitWorld’s International Program Director, Ana Stern and Program and Communications Coordinator, Diandra Malahoo will be speaking in the 24 hour, online event, Global Collaboration Day! This event brings together educators, teachers, organization and literacy enthusiast to a virtual experience of connecting, learning and exchanging ideas. We are so excited to be able to share a read aloud and core activity with such a large community across the globe!
As a part of Global Collaboration Day, LitWorld will be hosting a google hangout at 12:00 pm EST with a read aloud and 4 Square memory activity. We will also talk about our core values, best practices and share stories from our partners around the world. We are looking forward to hearing the experiences of other teachers, students, mentors, and educators as well.
Click here to visit Global Collaboration Day’s site and sign up to participate!
During our hangout, participants will be sharing their work on a collaborative website, so that we can engage in conversations around all of our stories. We invite you to join the google hangout for our session and our collaborative padlet page where everyone joining can post comments and share their work!
Stories Make Us Strong
We are excited to announce a new partnership and blog series with our friends at Story Share! We first met Story Share through our Story21 family LitClub program. We loved that they shared our focus on the joy and hope that spreads through literacy. Story Share inspires reading practice and improves literacy skills through a collaborative digital literacy hub that brings together writers, readers, and educators. The Story Share platform provides relevant and readable stories to inspire a love of reading in students who struggle. Literacy is about so much more than words on a page. It is a lifelong tool that you can use any way you want: to learn about things, to find your way, to find yourself, to change the world.
We are so excited to team up with together for a 7 Strengths blog series that is all about using the power of stories to become resilient and ready to use your own story to dream big and find new ways to connect with your community, and the world. The LitWorld 7 Strengths - Belonging, Curiosity, Friendship, Kindness, Confidence, Courage, and Hope - come from the LitClub curriculum that we use with children and families to celebrate and amplify the inner strength they already have. These core ideas are essential for feeling fully ready for success in school, for healthy friendships and for facing all of the challenges, bumps and blips that come our way as we go through life.
Here are the 7 Strengths in all of their glory:
Belonging: Identifying as a needed, loved, and respected member of one’s family, community, and world as a whole
Curiosity: Fostering a willingness to explore new territory and test new theories
Friendship: Having close, trusting relationships with others
Kindness: Being tender towards others in the world who are in need, both near and far
Confidence: Thinking independently and expressing ideas with assurance
Courage: The strength to do something that you know is right, even though it may be difficult
Hope: Thinking optimistically and believing that today’s efforts will produce good things in the future for yourself and for the world
In the coming weeks, we will dig into the awesome Story Share library for recommended reading that will explore each of the 7 Strengths. Whether you’re heading back to school and need a confidence boost and the comfort of knowing that feeling nervous is normal, or are interested in the power of curiosity, and how approaching life with wonder could lead to exciting opportunities, we’ve got you covered.
Join LitWorld's Virtual Stand Up for Girls Story Summit
October 11th is our signature Stand Up for Girls day of action in honor of the International Day of the Girl. We mobilize to remind the world that the stories of women and girls are a force for positive change in our world. Our network of LitWorld and Global G.L.O.W. girls and mentors will hold community Story Summits, bringing together girls from the community to share stories of strength from their own lives.
LitWorld is rallying all of our supporters (that means you!) to come together in a virtual Story Summit leading up to October 11th. Here's how you can participate:
Take a minute to think about all of your strengths (you have many). Now, thinking about your strengths, reflect on the women and girls in your lives who have inspired, nurtured and supported your strengths. Was it your mother? A cousin? A mentor? Or was it someone you have never met but who has provided encouragement simply by living out her story?
Now share the source of your strength on social media, so that others may be moved and changed by her story too. Add her name to the end of our prompt "I am strong like..." with the tags #HerStory and #DayoftheGirl and a photo if you'd like. Together we will create a worldwide celebration of strong women leading up to the Day of the Girl.
Sample Posts
I am strong like my mother. #HerStory inspires me every day. Stand Up for Girls with @litworldsays on the #DayoftheGirl
I am strong like Maya Angelou. Her poetry is a constant source of courage, motivation and comfort. I will Stand Up for Girls with @LitWorld on October 11th because the stories of girls will change our world.
I am strong like Malala. She reminds me that the most powerful tool I could ever own is my own voice. "One child, one teacher, one pen and one book can change the world." Stand Up for Girls with @LitWorld on October 11th. #DayoftheGirl #HerStory #standup4girls
Director of the LitWorld & Global G.L.O.W. HerStory Initiative Named to ILA's 30 Under 30 List
Today the International Literacy Association debuted the first ever 30 Under 30 list to celebrate a new generation of young professionals innovating new connect communities around the world with the power of literacy.
We are thrilled to share that Jennifer Estrada, Director of the LitWorld and Global G.L.O.W. HerStory Initiative is a member of this inaugural group. The 30 Under 30 featured story in Literacy Today magazine shares how the HerStory Initiative is connecting over 5,000 girls in 19 countries with literacy programs centered on storytelling, creative expression and powerful mentor relationships under Jennifer's leadership. Read the full story and be inspired and filled with hope for a future where every person, everywhere has the chance to tell her story.
"The moments when our global community faces its greatest challenges are the moments when we can most benefit from the power of young people's stories. By hearing these stories, by valuing them, we recognize the importance of girls' lives and they become a force for change in the world." -- Jennifer Estrada
Announcing The Grandma Alley Fund in Honor of Alice Youngman
LitWorld celebrates and honors the life of Alice Youngman, a dear friend to LitWorld and an extraordinary champion of our work empowering children around the world through the power of literacy and story. To honor her legacy as a lifelong supporter of children’s hopes and dreams, and as a vibrant storyteller, and to ensure that her story continues to impact girls around the world, LitWorld has launched Grandma Alley Fund to support the HerStory Initiative.
We work in close and trusting partnerships with locally based, grassroots organizations to build sustainable outcomes for young people around the world. The HerStory Initiative improves and inspires the lives of girls through a focus on storytelling, literacy, and mentorship.
Through the HerStory Initiative, LitWorld and our partner Global G.L.O.W. have created a powerful model for change that supports girls’ academic and emotional well-being while boosting resilience and literacy skills. Our HerStory programs bring girls and women leaders together for literacy empowerment workshops and full day community retreats, and create strong networks across the globe through online story-sharing and mentorship.
We proudly accept gifts in Alice’s memory to nurture and grow the HerStory Initiative through the Grandma Alley Fund. Together we will make sure many more girls can open their worlds and expand their futures with the power of literacy. If you would like to make a contribution, visit litworld.org/donate. We are grateful for your gift of any size.
August News: A Video from Nepal LitKids and Moments of Serious Joy
Standing Strong in Nepal
Though stories from Nepal have faded from the news in the months following the earthquake, LitWorld is strengthening and expanding our support in the country. We are in the process of launching five new LitClubs this year and opening a community library with our partners Global G.L.O.W. and The Rukmini Foundation. We will also increase our scope beyond Kathmandu with a new partner, Save the Environment of Nepal. The heart of our work is that children's own stories and life experiences fuel literacy, and that writing down and giving a voice to these stories builds strength and resilience. LitWorld Photographer & Liaison Monet Eliastam visited our Nepal LitClub girls after the earthquake and listened to their stories. Watch this short video to hear the girls' stories in their own words, and witness the power of LitClub in action. If you would like to support the expansion of LitWorld programs, we would be deeply grateful for your gift of any size.
Stories from the Field: LitWorld in Colombia
Our International Program Director, Ana Stern, spent the beginning of the month in Cali and Roldanillo, Colombia with our partners Bibliotec, Museo Rayo and Biblioghetto. She visited each community where LitClubs run and heard about the impact of our programs. During a visit to one of the schools that LitClub members attend, a teacher said that the change in students' openness to sharing, attitudes towards reading, and social awareness since joining LitClub has been an incredible positive change in her classroom. Ana presented LitWorld innovations at the International Conference on Reading, Information and Culture alongside Mabel Bejarano, our Colombia-based Advisory Council member who has been integral in growing our work in this region, and our local program leaders. Attendees told Ana and Mabel that LitWorld stood out because of the positive, strength-based model that we use. We are ready to greatly scale up our programs in this country, with a corps of newly trained LitClub mentors leading the way.
A Moment of Serious Joy
Everyone should be celebrated for being exactly who they are. Giving shooting stars is a signature LitWorld affirmation that LitClub members and mentors give each other for showing strength - the courage to tell a story, to show kindness to others, to follow every curiosity, to be a good friend. This LitCamper's reaction says it all: being honored for being you feels good. Our unique way of cultivating children's reading and writing identities and simultaneously tending to social and emotional well-being sets LitWorld apart. Our Founder Pam Allyn recently shared tips for parents and teachers based on LitWorld's best practices with Scholastic and the International Literacy Association.
Special LitWorld Reminders
It's never to early to start planning for World Read Aloud Day, especially with the dawn of back to school season. February 24th is the big day: start spreading the word! To lend even more support to LitWorld during back to school season, consider shopping for books and supplies on AmazonSmile to donate a portion of your purchase to our programs.