Impact Report
2023
Inspiring a Lifelong Love of Learning
Letter from CEO and Board Chair
We are thrilled to share our Impact Report for fiscal year 2023. It is a true celebration of the past year and 35 years of CLI’s work to empower children, educators, and communities through literacy. This report highlights the remarkable progress we’ve made this year in our mission to instill a lifelong love of reading in Black and Latinx children.
First and foremost, we want to express our heartfelt gratitude to our school partners, philanthropic investors, and all the volunteers who support us. Your contributions have made an incredible impact on the lives of the children we serve. With your help, we were able to reach and support over 16,468 children, 2,456 educators, and 781 classrooms.
This past year, CLI worked with teachers, school leaders, and district leaders to diagnose and strengthen early literacy instruction so that every child we served could experience mastery, success, and the freedom to shape their own future. We are equipping and empowering educators with skills that will endure, allowing CLI to touch the lives of every student they teach over the lifetime of their careers. This is an impact that is sustained long after CLI coaching and training are complete.
We believe that literacy is the foundation of lifelong learning and a powerful tool for understanding and questioning the world around us. If we don’t educate our children, we risk our democracy, and we risk our ability to live up to our country’s potential.
Literacy provides children with mirrors into themselves and windows into worlds of possibility. CLI is dedicated to providing literacy instruction that liberates children, inspires them to dream bigger, and empowers them to be their most authentic selves. We’re firmly committed to creating a world where all children have access to equitable education, and where they’re empowered to become transformative thinkers and world-changers.
Our report is a testament to the incredible power of culturally sustaining early literacy instruction, support, and advocacy. We are excited to enter this next phase of impact at this critical time in education. We hope that this report will inspire you to join us in building a lasting legacy of literacy and empowerment for generations to come.
Our Vision
Children’s Literacy Initiative seeks to dismantle structural racism by providing Black and Latinx children with the anti-racist early literacy instruction, support, and advocacy needed to create equity in education.
We are working towards creating a more equitable education system, one that promotes early literacy, cultural competency, and equitable outcomes for all students, particularly Black and Latinx students who have long been disproportionately isolated from the resources to obtain the education they deserve. CLI believes that literacy is a vital pathway to create lasting social change and foster a just and equitable society.
Learn more about our mission >>
impact
im · pact | \ im-˙pakt
verb
to have a direct effect or impact on
synonyms: effect, influence, mark
Learn how you can have an impact >>
DRIVING IMPACT FOR CHANGE
Working with pre-kindergarten through fifth grade teachers, CLI is transforming literacy instruction and early childhood education so that children learn to read as a powerful act of identity, agency, and cultural joy.
We accomplish this by providing (virtually or in-person):
- One-on-one embedded teacher coaching
- Trainings in the best practices in early literacy instruction
- Leadership development to support sustainable change
- High-quality classroom books and materials
By helping educators learn high-impact instructional strategies and nurturing dynamic professional learning communities, CLI builds lasting capacity in teachers and principals that endures over time.
124
Schools
781
Classrooms
1358
Educators
249
Administrators
16464
Students
1098
Teachers
Lifelong Love of Literacy: Bryce Simmons
As we celebrate our 35th anniversary, it presents us with the opportunity to take a look back at the impact that Children’s Literacy Initiative has had on the lives of teachers and children, and to follow up with the friends we have made along the way.
In 1999, “Room 107, A Special Place” was filmed at Kearny School in Philadelphia. In that video we filmed our very first model classroom teacher, Ellen Ginsberg, and spoke with her about how working with CLI has changed the lives of her and her students.
In 2009 we caught up with one of the students from that classroom, Bryce Simmons, to see what he remembered about his kindergarten experience. And now, in 2023, we brought Bryce back to talk about life, being a dad, and what role his early learnings have had on his life.
Only this time we brought a surprise...
Join the CLI Community
Inspired by what you've seen and want to support CLI? You can contact a member of our Development Team to learn more about how your philanthropic investment can advance our literacy mission. Click here to connect with us.
Subscribe to our quarterly newsletter, The Read. Each edition we share insights on all things literacy, share stories of impact and helpful literacy tools, along with book lists to expand your classroom and at-home libraries!
