“We deal here with the right of all of our children, whatever their race, to an equal start in life and to an equal opportunity to reach their full potential as citizens. Those children who have been denied that right in the past deserve better than to see fences thrown up to deny them that right in the future.”
–Thurgood Marshall
Dear Friends,
NewAlliance Foundation’s signature support of literacy and public libraries reflects its core values and its fundamental, ongoing commitment to helping both children and adults attain literacy fluency and competency. Fluency gives both children and adults the ability to learn, discern and question. Competency helps develop critical skills important toward leading full lives. Both are vital to reaching the potential that Justice Marshall so cogently envisioned.
We sadly acknowledge the structural racism in our country, which has both visibly and invisibly impeded and endangered its black citizens, and which is insidiously abetted by challenges children face in attaining and maintaining grade level reading when they are not in school. Those challenges leave them further behind when school resumes, and that situation has only been exacerbated by the coronavirus-driven early closures of schools in March.
NewAlliance Foundation’s READy for the Grade summer reading program, run by public libraries, aims to diminish the literacy loss that K-3 students from low-income families often experience in the summer months. We are steadfastly committed to these libraries and their READy for the Grade programs in the months and years ahead. These programs will be supporting children who have experienced significant reading loss since the closing of schools, which has disproportionately affected children of color.
We are committed to doing our part and support tearing down the fences that Justice Marshall described with our pledge to help eradicate the pernicious and systemic racism that can feed on and perpetuate illiteracy. We will also look for opportunities in our grant making process that seek to end educational and health disparities as well as support inclusion and outreach to our minority communities. These efforts to end institutional racism are intrinsically consistent with NewAlliance Foundation’s long held values which inspire us going forward.
Our voices will be heard by our action and commitment of continuing to support our non-profit partners in their crucially important work in the arts, in community development, in health & human services, and in programs for youth & education.
In partnership,
| Kim A. Healey | Robert J. Lyons, Jr. |
| Executive Director | Board Chair |
