At Reading Village, we’re committed to leveraging literacy, education, and leadership to interrupt the cycle of generational poverty. If our model is successful our partner communities will no longer require our presence.
Reading Village’s model is commonly referred to as a “train the trainer” model. Our staff, local to the region in which we work, are highly skilled participatory leadership facilitators who train the youth in our program to be leaders of change and reading promoters among the children in their communities.
Our model is youth-based and focused on what research has shown to be the foundational elements of developing community self-determination and prosperity: local leadership, engaged citizenry, education and literacy. The Leaders & Readers methodology pulls from Paulo Freire’s Popular Education, Theory U, The Art of Hosting, participatory leadership and research on the importance of empathy and emotional intelligence. We use literacy as a tool in the hands of our youth leaders because reading is not only an important end, in and of itself, but it also is the means to other important ends such as good health, informed parenting, political voice and higher income.
If our model is successful our partner communities will no longer require our presence. There will no longer be a need for teen reading promoters when parents are able to read to their own children. There will no longer be a need for high school scholarships when parents can afford to send their own children to school.