RIF targets seven neighborhoods of need where students were in academic crisis long before COVID; overall, their homes have fewer books and they’ve spent considerably less time reading 1-on-1 with an adult. By kindergarten, they are lagging in reading, math and science. By fourth grade, national researchers say, poor readers lag in all subjects, unable to make the leap from learning to read, to reading to learn. Graduation rates, career paths and lifetime earnings show that many never overcome the disadvantages. More facts and statistics.

Amid the pandemic, these children stand to fare even worse. As schools struggle to fulfill competing mandates of teaching, and keeping kids and families safe, it falls to households to take up the slack, requiring extra resources that further strain already stressed budgets.

In a larger context, disproportionately poorer COVID-19 outcomes among Black Americans – from case severity to higher mortality – are tied to factors such as healthcare access, type of employment and living conditions, which are in turn directly tied to literacy.

Additionally, in primarily Black neighborhoods such as those in which RIF Pittsburgh operates, the coronavirus was just one of two crises in spring 2020, coinciding with the relentless police violence against Black people that continued to take an outsized toll on communities. Outrage boiled over into mass protests, fueling a broader push for racial justice and deeper awareness of systemic racism. As a community-engagement organization whose work is embedded in predominantly Black neighborhoods of need, RIF has long held equity as a core value underpinning our mission. We’re redoubling our commitment to educate ourselves on race, to prioritize diversity on our team, and, above all, to recognize that the most powerful action we as literacy advocates can take to help move racial justice forward is to not only increase access to books but to ensure that we are providing the best available: titles by Black and multicultural authors that lift children up, give them positive examples, provide families of all backgrounds with tools to talk about race, and help kids, parents and communities navigate the road ahead. We must act urgently on root concerns like literacy that are a matter of short- and long-term survival for RIF kids. For these children, the clock keeps ticking on their development and rapid brain growth. This year and next year matter. Students who are behind in reading now risk falling further behind in every subject, and few will catch up.

RIF’s strategy is to reach children and families early and often with resources, skill-building opportunities, and relationships that are motivational for children and parents.