LitWorld International Inc.

LitWorld’s​ ​mission​ ​​is to strengthen kids and communities through the power of stories. We​ ​powerfully​ ​provide​ ​a​ ​combination​ ​of​ ​access​ ​to​ ​resources​ ​and​ ​also​ ​training​ ​and​ ​support for​ ​families​ ​and​ ​mentors​ ​to​ ​actively​ ​engage​ ​children​ ​in​ ​deep​ ​literacy​ ​exploration​ ​that​ ​helps​ ​them​ ​value their​ ​own​ ​stories—the​ ​stories​ ​of​ ​their​ ​lives,​ ​their​ ​communities​ ​and​ ​cultures,​ ​their​ ​hopes​ ​and​ ​dreams, and​ ​their​ ​imaginations.​ ​​Working​ ​across​ ​the​ ​United​ ​States​ ​and​ ​around​ ​the​ ​world,​ ​LitWorld​ ​employs side-by-side​ ​partnerships​ ​with​ ​local​ ​organizations​ ​and​ ​school​ ​districts,​ ​harnessing​ ​the​ ​ability​ ​of​ ​a community​ ​to​ ​boost​ ​itself​ ​from​ ​within.

For​ ​LitWorld,​ ​the​ ​mastery​ ​of​ ​literacy​ ​goes​ ​well​ ​beyond​ ​learning​ ​to​ ​read​ ​words​ ​on​ ​a​ ​page​ ​or​ ​to construct​ ​a​ ​functional​ ​sentence​ ​or​ ​paragraph.​ ​With​ ​transformational​ ​literacy,​ ​students​ ​gain self-understanding,​ ​the​ ​ability​ ​to​ ​listen​ ​deeply,​ ​and​ ​the​ ​interpersonal​ ​skills​ ​to​ ​work​ ​collaboratively​ ​and empathetically​ ​with​ ​others.​ ​We​ ​also​ ​understand​ ​that​ ​transformational​ ​literacy​ ​can​ ​occur​ ​only​ ​in​ ​​a​ ​safe, supportive​ ​environment​ ​fueled​ ​by​ ​caring​ ​mentor​ ​and​ ​peer-to-peer​ ​relationships,​ ​and​ ​that​ ​it​ ​has​ ​its​ ​fullest impact​ ​when​ ​there​ ​is​ ​access​ ​to​ ​high-quality​ ​academic​ ​enrichment​ ​and​ ​varied​ ​reading​ ​materials​ ​and technology.​ ​Our​ ​innovative​ ​evaluation​ ​tools​ ​demonstrate​ ​that​ ​LitWorld​ ​programs​ ​result​ ​in​ ​a​ ​dramatic increase​ ​in​ ​children's​ ​reading​ ​and​ ​writing​ ​capacities,​ ​civic​ ​engagement,​ ​future​ ​outlook,​ ​and​ ​sense​ ​of personal​ ​value,​ ​as​ ​well​ ​as​ ​improvements​ ​in​ ​reading​ ​and​ ​writing​ ​habits​ ​and​ ​in​ ​overall​ ​literacy​ ​levels.

In our programs and campaigns, we engage children with rich, authentic literature to develop their literacy skills and create a pathway to confidence, self-expression, and change-making. Working across the U.S. and around the world, LitWorld engages in partnerships with local organizations, school districts, and corporations, providing a combination of access to resources with training and support. LitWorld’s programs help kids cultivate self-understanding and the confidence to work collaboratively and empathetically with others. When children are free to explore their identities and share their stories, they find the power to create lasting change in their lives, their communities, and beyond.

LitClubs and LitCamps give children and families a safe place to share stories, build trust, and experience mentoring from supportive adults while strengthening their reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills. LitClubs are year-round after school programs—managed through our partnerships with over 50 grassroots and mission-driven organizations around the world—that encourage kids to own and author their stories, developing self-empowerment and creating social change through literacy. LitCamps are run during school breaks to bring joy, community, and academic development to students and teachers, while working to combat the summer slide. We work with Scholastic to bring LitCamps to classrooms across the US.

The HerStory Campaign, co-founded with our partner Global G.L.O.W., uniquely addressed the needs of women and girls through LitClubs, HerStory Summits, and other innovative girl-focused programming, amplifying and championing the voices of girls through storytelling, mentorship, and self-advocacy.

World Read Aloud Day is our major advocacy day, celebrated by millions of children, teens, and adults in more than 120 countries, bringing attention to the power of shared stories and creating a global community of readers who show the world that the right to literacy belongs to us all.

Our core value is that literacy is a research-proven form of protection that fortifies children, supports their social development at every age, and leads to high-impact health and economic benefits. LitWorld’s acclaimed model is predicated on side-by-side partnering with local community organizations. The success of the work is rooted in active listening and collaborative goal-setting with our partners to achieve desired literacy outcomes. Our expertise helps community-based leaders, young people and families connect to literature and literacy in the deepest possible ways, sharing best practices that build and fortify independence, hope and joy in the lives of children and their families.

LitWorld provides a combination of access to resources with the training and support for families and mentors to actively engage children in deep literacy exploration that leads them to value the stories of their own lives. LitWorld activates this mission through its core programs. LitClubs are LitWorld’s signature out-of-school program, which provide a haven for literacy development and social-emotional exploration. We run LitClubs in partnership with locally-based organizations that have access to community members who can become LitClub mentors, groups of children who can become LitClub members, safe spaces for the clubs to meet, and places where they can connect with other LitClubs virtually. LitCamp is a breakthrough summer literacy program that combines innovative research-based reading and writing lessons with an engaging and interactive summer camp approach. LitWorld also touches millions of lives across the world through a number of annual advocacy efforts, including the LitWorld created World Read Aloud Day, Stand Up for Girls, and Story Summits.

LitWorld currently reaches over 7,000 children, teens, and adults through year-round LitClubs and HerStory programs with our on- the-ground partners where every child has access to a supportive network of mentors and peers. Through a partnership with Scholastic, LitCamp is in the hands of 1 million kids in over 45,000 classrooms across the US, making year-round learning more established and permanent within communities. Every child enrolled in K-8 summer literacy programming through the New York City Department of Education is a LitCamper, and the administration and teachers alike say they have never before seen their children’s literacy rates improve so quickly. In 2021, 90 million people across 120 countries engaged in our annual World Read Aloud Day campaign, fostering a value for storytelling within communities and advocating for literacy as a human right. LitWorld's goals are to reach even more children and teens around the world with our programming, empowering them to be global change-makers through the power of story.