Read It Forward: Our Virtual Book Drive Fundraiser Supporting Chinatown’s Small Businesses and Future Leaders
Welcome to Chinatown is launching the Read it Forward campaign in partnership with Immigrant Social Services—a community-based non-profit that provides academic support enrichment programs to Chinatown and Lower East Side public school students. Welcome to Chinatown is fundraising toward a goal of $13,000 by the second week of December to purchase books from Eastern Book Store NYC, an independent Chinese bookstore in Chinatown, for at least 200 students in grades 1-5 at ISS partner school sites in Chinatown and Lower East Side. Our goal is to gift 2-3 books, curated from a list of diverse, BIPOC children’s book authors, before the holidays and provide these students an accessible and joyful reading experience at home with physical books they can own.
Help us reach our fundraising goal by the second week of December to guarantee distribution of the books to the students by Christmas!
Why a book drive?
The majority of these students are from economically disadvantaged and/or immigrant households with limited access to learning materials and books, and rely on schools and public libraries for access to borrow books to bring home to read. Access to print books and owning books at home are not only key to the academic development of students, but also their future success and wellbeing. Almost 50% of households in Chinatown/LES lack internet access and even more do not have reliable internet access that is crucial for remote learning. The closing of public schools as well as public libraries also means that students have lost their source for books. The “COVID-19 academic slide” is real with the learning loss much greater for students from low-income families and families of color.
Artwork by Emily B. Yang
NYC Coalition for Educational Justice’s 2020 report on English Language Arts curriculum found that less than 16% of commonly-used curricula and book lists from Pre-K through 8th grade in New York City public schools are by authors of color or feature main characters who are people of color. Immigrant Social Services serves Chinatown and the Lower East Side public schools that are comprised of over 75% Asian, Black, and Latinx students.
The books purchased through this campaign will be selected to cover themes that center the experiences of Asian American, immigrant, BIPOC, and persons living with different abilities so that students will be able to not only have these books to own at home but be able to experience the joy, confidence, and pride that comes from reading stories that reflects their own identities and experiences. Diverse children's literature provides relevant life lessons that help build a positive identity and relationships with peers, insight on how to overcome challenges in one’s community, and empowerment toward youth academic success and leadership development.
“I still remember the feeling of first learning how to read. The rush of it felt like flying. My parents would read to me at night, pointing out each word as they read it aloud. As I began to recognize letters and piece them together with sounds, it felt like running. When the clumps of letters became words, filled with meaning, I finally flew.” - Emily Yang, Contributing Artist, Welcome to Chinatown
What happens after the books are donated?
Research on reading shows that “sharing books, talking about them, and reading them aloud is the greatest harbinger of success for our children in all areas.” Through this initiative, Welcome to Chinatown and Immigrant Social Services will also be recruiting “literacy buddies” for students who do not have households who can read these books with them. Having adults who can read together with them will further benefit students during the COVID-19 pandemic by giving them meaningful social engagement to prevent social isolation, and someone to help them connect the themes they are reading to what’s happening in the world around them.
Keeping core to our mission: supporting Chinatown’s small businesses
Read It Forward will also support Eastern Book Store NYC, an independent Chinatown bookstore impacted by COVID-19, and Lee & Low Books, one of the few independent and minority-owned multicultural children's book publishers in the country. Welcome to Chinatown will work with them to purchase children books that celebrate cultural and ethnic diversity. We hope you will join us in making culturally-responsive literacy support and book ownership more accessible for these students!
How you can support: Make a donation to help students own their own books to read at home. Your donation covers the cost of books at list price to also help a small business, and packaging and shipping of books to the student. Your donation will also be instantly doubled through ioby’s NYC COVID-19 Neighborhood Relief Fund. Giving suggestions are provided in the left image.
Help us also spread the word and follow Read it Forward updates through our Instagram.
Special thanks to Eastern Bookstore NYC (13-17 Elizabeth Street, Fl 2, New York, NY 10013) and Lee & Low Books for their assistance in sourcing and selecting books for students.
About ioby:
ioby stands for “in our backyards,” but it also stands for taking care of each other, for civic participation, and for trusting neighbors to know what’s best for the neighborhood. Neighbors nationwide have raised over $10 million in citizen philanthropy on ioby for projects that make their communities healthier, greener, safer, and more livable. When you post a project on ioby you can collect tax-deductible donations, find new donors and volunteers, and receive one-on-one fundraising coaching.
The NYC COVID-19 Neighborhood Relief Fund provides matching dollars on ioby crowdfunding campaigns for projects that help low-income communities respond to and recover from the economic and social impacts of COVID-19. https://ioby.org/NYCtogether
About Immigrant Social Services (ISS):
Immigrant Social Services (ISS) is a non-profit, community-based organization founded in 1972 that has diligently and proudly supported multiple generations of new immigrants and other under-resourced community members in NYC’s Lower East Side and Chinatown toward an improved quality of life and thriving future.. ISS provides out-of-school time programs for children and youth, senior and intergenerational programs, civic education and outreach, and counseling services. In delivering programs to community members, ISS partners with a diverse base of community stakeholders that include schools, parents, residents, businesses, community organizations, and public entities. Their largest program is focused on supporting children and families in LES/Chinatown community’s public schools, where an overwhelming majority are limited English proficient and/or from mono-lingual Chinese speaking households.
About Welcome to Chinatown:
Welcome to Chinatown is a grassroots initiative founded in March of 2020 to support Chinatown businesses following the rapid decline in revenue as a result of COVID-19 and increased xenophobia. We serve Chinatown businesses through: generating cash flow to open businesses in Chinatown while shelter-in-place policies are still mandated; modernizing business strategies and support for small businesses; and providing venues for storytelling and branding to preserve Chinatown's historical and cultural identity. Welcome to Chinatown is here to help say: Chinatown will always be open for business.
Welcome to Chinatown is operating through a fiscal sponsorship with Players Philanthropy Fund (Federal Tax ID: 27-6601178), a Maryland charitable trust with federal tax-exempt status as a public charity under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Contributions to Welcome to Chinatown are tax-deductible to the fullest extent of the law.
