Community Partners Target Early Childhood Literacy with Broward’s Read for the Record Campaign

LAUDERHILL – The Children’s Services Council of Broward County (CSC) will partner with local businesses, non-profit organizations and other community stakeholders to make an impact on the literacy development of nearly 40,000 of Broward’s youngest residents. At its monthly meeting, the CSC approved up to $130,000 to purchase books for Broward Reads for the Record, the local effort based on the national campaign that celebrates literacy by mobilizing millions of children and adults to read the same book on the same day.

On October 21, readers including teachers, parents, caregivers, local officials, and older children will participate in reading “Bunny Cakes,” a comical story of sibling bonding and birthday shenanigans. The campaign goal in Broward is to ensure that every four and five-year-old gets a copy of the book to take home. That number is just under 40,000, including students from 500 voluntary pre-Kindergarten centers, 225 schools and 1,500 classrooms.

“With this broad effort, we can help remind and educate the community about the importance of early literacy and its link to ensuring success in school and beyond,” said Cindy Arenberg Seltzer, CSC President/CEO.

Community support is already off to a great start with the Jim Moran Foundation contributing $30,000 toward the initiative. Other partners include the School Board of Broward County, United Way of Broward County, Community Foundation of Broward, Early Learning Coalition of Broward, Family Central and more.

Broward Reads for the Record will kick off the CSC’s Campaign for Grade-Level Reading to provide resources to assist children who suffer the most from the education achievement gap.

For more information on the national Read for the Record campaign, visit http://www.jstart.org/campaigns/read-record.