Magazines are game changers for literacy

 

Magazines are especially powerful reading resources for literacy.

• People love to read and share magazines.

• There are magazines for every age, reading level, and interest.

• Magazines educate and entertain – igniting imagination.

• Magazine content is timely and timeless.

• Magazines foster ownership that builds self-esteem.

• Magazines promote mentoring around common interests.

• Magazines are familiar and not intimidating for readers in crisis.

• Magazines are engagingly beautiful – colorful and vibrant.

• Magazines are inspirational and aspirational.

We all remember our favorite childhood memories reading magazines. Adults who are unable to read were once children who did not learn how. A child who cannot read is unable to succeed in any school subject. Teachers and other literacy agents do not have enough good reading materials. Many families do not have reading materials at home – a basic like food. At some point each year, over a million children spend time in homeless or domestic violence shelters. They arrive with no possessions and little spirit. There, they find literacy champions passionate about feeding kids and families hungry to read and succeed.  MagazineLiteracy.org puts favorite magazines into the hands, homes, and hearts of children, teens, and adults who want to learn and love to read.

Millions of readers are reachable via vast community networks.

The following are the priority focus areas where there are significant unmet needs and where we can have the greatest positive impact:

Literacy Program Focus areas:   homeless children, families, and students (1 million+ readers) moms and children in domestic violence shelters (1,500 shelters) youth in early education, after-school, and mentoring programs hungry families served by food pantries and nutrition programs girls and women in empowerment programs teens and adults in job training programs children in foster care (400,000+ readers)

Magazines for:   Child Literacy Family Literacy Financial Literacy Health Literacy Cultural Literacy Media Literacy Functional Literacy Technology Literacy

We need every person involved with magazines to stand with us and to participate in this industry-wide literacy celebration.

We love magazines and we know MagazineLiteracy.org works – we’ve sent tens of thousands of new and recycled magazines to at-risk children and families via community literacy programs, but millions more need them. Engagement and support from every corner of the magazine publishing industry is needed to unleash the awesome power of magazines as a literacy resource for at-risk kids and families.

“To reach our full promise we must rally the industry to plant our literacy seed in the minds and hearts of magazine stakeholders. Help us tell our story to those who want to share the magazines they love with literacy champions, children, and families who need them.”

iMAGine magazine literacy, and make it so.