To help improve early literacy skills and increase access to books for local children in the Crotona Park West community of the South Bronx, Phipps Neighborhoods has developed an Early Childhood Family Literacy Initiative. Kicking off this initiative, we recently opened the new Reading Room at Phipps Houses’ Lynda Simmons Homes in Crotona Park West!
The Reading Room is open to all community members, including neighboring schools where Phipps Neighborhoods runs after-school programs, a Universal Pre-K program at Roscoe C. Brown Apartments, and a nearby family shelter.
To increase community involvement, Phipps Neighborhoods is organizing weekly literacy activities, including a story time series, make-a-book activities, parenting workshops, author readings, and seasonal community events. Families are also invited to use the space independently for reading activities with their children.
The Crotona Park West community, where Phipps Neighborhoods is a lead partner in South Bronx Rising Together, has fewer than one in five 3rd graders reading at grade level and only about 50 percent of three and four year olds enrolled in an early education program. To help improve these statistics, the reading room will serve as a community resource to promote early literacy.
The Reading Room opened on Saturday, June 20th, but we still need help collecting books to stock the reading room! If you have new or gently used books (especially books for early readers) that you would like to donate, please contact Luz Cano at 718.716.1128 or Lcano@phippsny.org.
Visit the Phipps Neighborhoods’ Crotona Park West Reading Room at 1591 Fulton Avenue in the Bronx.