Literacy in the H.O.O.D.: Meet the Cleveland group aimed at getting inner-city kids to read

CLEVELAND, Ohio – Chrishawndra Matthews is a one-person literacy marketing campaign working to construct sturdy readers in inner-city Cleveland by celebrating the written phrase.

In a span of 5 years, her nonprofit, Literacy within the H.O.O.D., has distributed greater than 100,000 books to assist enhance the studying lives of youths, a lot of them in grade faculty.

She started this system, which stands for Serving to Out Our Disenfranchised, when her son was 3, and he or she wished to study extra about native applications in Cleveland that would assist him turn into a greater reader. She stated she discovered few sources.

For a lot of households, getting a toddler to a department of the Cleveland Public Library is troublesome, particularly in the summertime months, due to schedules and transportation issues. However Matthews’ program goes proper to neighborhoods.

“I knew if I started to cross out books within the interior metropolis that youngsters may start on the trail to turning into lifelong learners,” she stated.

In Cleveland, the necessity for her work and that of comparable applications is nice. The Nationwide Middle for Schooling Statistics, in a survey, discovered that about one in 5 residents of Cuyahoga County are at or under essentially the most primary literacy stage.

Researchers at Case Western Reserve College, in a paper in 2004, discovered that one in three youngsters within the metropolis have been born to moms who lacked a high-school diploma.

Matthews started the nonprofit in 2017. It hopes to construct a tradition of studying in Cleveland’s low-income neighborhoods by specializing in serving college students in kindergarten by eighth grade. It additionally reaches these in highschool. It has gained nationwide acclaim, incomes kudos from Good Morning America and CNN.

Kelly Clarkson, the singer and talk-show host, offered her with a van to distribute the books, which Matthews beneficial properties from donations.

She was raised in East Cleveland. She remembers fighting studying and English in highschool. She stated she didn’t imagine there have been sufficient sources out there to assist her.

Years later, when she started elevating her son, Derrick, she thought again to how residents in inner-city Cleveland lacked the instruments to assist youngsters.

She grew to become fearful for her son.

Matthews started driving to native libraries, gathering books and serving to him with flashcards that had sight phrases. She made some extent to raise her son’s studying, even when she needed to do it herself.

She then questioned about different youngsters, particularly those that lacked sources. That’s when she determined to start out the nonprofit.

Matthews stated it’s not simply in regards to the books. It’s in regards to the sources that oldsters can wrap round their little kids, as effectively. She stated she believes that college can solely improve what college students do and have entry to at dwelling.

“If no person is working with them at dwelling, then the college doesn’t have something to work with,” Matthews stated. “All of it [comes] all the way down to the sources connected to the college within the interior metropolis.”

For Christian Berry, the initiative was in a position to not solely assist his daughter learn higher, however it additionally allowed her to be uncovered to totally different books.

“My scenario, being a single father with restricted to no assist and never having the right time to spend and make investments, was hindering us,” he stated. “However it wasn’t till this system, the place she acquired books of people that seem like her, that [she became] acquainted with books, and her studying grew to become higher.”

Matthews has labored as a grant author for a number of many years and has been part of varied organizations, together with Seeds of Literacy. She is a neighborhood ambassador for the United Labor Company, serving to mother and father with workforce improvement points, instructional alternatives, and housing.

Her work has offered her with insights into what youngsters want. And her group goes past providing free books.

It gives a number of actions, together with applications equivalent to “Rock the Block,” the place its members go into neighborhoods and supply festivals and events. The group has labored with the LaBarberia Institute, a barber faculty in Cleveland, to offer free haircuts and the possibility to attend a e book truthful.

Matthews stated there may be extra work to be executed. She hopes to construct a headquarters to accommodate the group, its providers and books for kids. She hopes to supply house the place caregivers can come and sit with youths to assist them turn into higher readers.

“Meaning instructing mother and father learn how to assist their youngsters discover ways to learn or turn into stronger readers in the event that they’re struggling,” Matthews stated. “If we will construct stronger readers, we’re going to have stronger leaders.”