Library of Congress Announces 2024 Literacy Awards Including Two Inaugural Prizes

From the Library of Congress:

The Library of Congress Literacy Awards program, sponsored by David M. Rubenstein since 2013, and also by the Kislak Family Foundation since 2023, honors promising initiatives that provide exemplary, innovative and replicable strategies that promote literacy. Twenty-four organizations working to expand literacy and promote reading were awarded the 2024 Library of Congress Literacy Awards Sept. 8 on International Literacy Day.

This year’s awards include two new prizes and additional funds for the Successful Practices Honoree category. The expansion of the Literacy Awards is made possible through a generous gift by the Kislak Family Foundation.

The Library of Congress continues to draw attention to the urgent need to achieve universal literacy in the United States and around the world.

“I am encouraged by the work that this year’s winners and honorees have accomplished in helping people of all ages not only learn to read in a primary or secondary language, but also in inspiring communities to enjoy the practice of reading,” said Librarian of Congress, Dr. Carla Hayden. “The Library of Congress is excited to celebrate their achievements and delighted to recognize their efforts to advance literacy around the world, through the generosity of David M. Rubenstein and the Kislak Family Foundation.”

The inaugural Kislak Family Foundation Prize recognizes Te Rūnanga Nui o Ngā Kura Kaupapa Māori Inc. in New Zealand for its outsized impact on literacy relative to its size. Top prizes are also awarded toLaundryCares Foundation, We Need Diverse Books and Alsama Project. Additionally, five new literacy initiatives that demonstrate significant creativity and promise in their approach to literacy received the inaugural Emerging Strategies Awards.

Prizes and Recipients

2024 David M. Rubenstein Prize ($150,000): LaundryCares Foundation, Oakbrook Terrace, Ilinois

Founded in 2006, LaundryCares Foundation provides early literacy programming for children and families in under-resourced communities by transforming everyday, frequently visited spaces such as laundromats into welcoming environments for learning. LaundryCares Foundation’s Family Read, Play & Learn spaces can be found in more than 150 laundromats across the country. The organization works to reduce barriers and increase access to book ownership by families in high-poverty neighborhoods, provide age-appropriate materials based on national best practices and research to children who otherwise do not have access, and implement culturally responsive early literacy programming in partnership with community-based organizations such as public libraries and schools. In addition, the LaundryCares Foundation builds connections between community members and laundromat attendants at their Free Laundry & Literacy Days through which they have also distributed more than 500,000 books to date.

2024 Kislak Family Foundation Prize ($100,000): Te Rūnanga Nui o Ngā Kura Kaupapa Māori Inc., Ōtaki, New Zealand

Te Rūnanga Nui o Ngā Kaupapa Māori Inc. was established 30 years ago when Māori children struggled to keep up with mainstream education and the Māori language was under threat of extinction. The organization responded to this crisis by revitalizing the Māori language through a network of schools with complete immersion language environments and a six-part educational philosophy. One of the educational components expects full competency in Māori and English while prioritizing a commitment to using Māori every day. Today, the network consists of 68 schools with 7,500 young students throughout New Zealand. Graduates from the schools continue their pariticipation as teachers, prinicipals, parents, and governors.

2024 American Prize ($50,000): We Need Diverse Books, Bethesda, Maryland

We Need Diverse Books promotes literacy by increasing access to diverse and inclusive books for young children who otherwise do not find their own backgrounds and experiences reflected in mainstream children’s books. The organization’s mission is rooted in research findings that show the connections between culturally authentic literature and improved literacy among marginalized youth. We Need Diverse Books increases representation in children’s literature by helping diverse authors and illustrators get their books published, publishing its own books with diverse narratives and distributing them to schools and libraries across the country, propelling college students with diverse backgrounds to enter the publishing industry, and providing the books they helped publish to students. Over the past 10 years, We Need Diverse Books has worked with more than 130 published authors, provided career guidance and financial support to diverse college students interning at publishing companies, and worked closely with educators to connect students to the books and authors supported by the organization.

2024 International Prize ($50,000): Alsama Project, Beirut, Lebanon

Alsama Project partners with the local community to educate and empower teenagers living in Lebanon’s refugee camps who are often unable to attend Lebanese secondary schools due to low literacy skills. Since 2020, Alsama has created four education centers and taught 880 displaced youth; reduced illiteracy through an innovative and effective curriculum that condenses 12 years of standard schooling into half that time; promoted greater stability in the displaced students’ lives through extracurricular activites such as competitive sports and music; and provided pathways to higher education. Students who attend Alsama Project’s educational centers are less likely to be pressured into early marriage. The literacy skills in Alsama’s robust curriculum include Arabic and English language practice, reading, writing, listening, speaking, numeracy, math and technology. Through its literacy instruction, Alsama Project equips its students with the skills for self-expression, self-reflection and self-advocacy.

2024 Successful Practices honorees ($10,000)

The Library of Congress Literacy Awards Program honored 15 organizations for their implementation of successful practices in literacy programming. These honorees, recipients of $10,000 each, are:

• Aalam Bibi Trust, Lahore, Pakistan
• Charmaghz, Kabul, Afghanistan
• Cotsen Foundation for the ART of TEACHING, Los Angeles, California
• Cuyahoga County Public Library, Parma, Ohio
• Educational Arts Team, Jersey City, New Jersey
• Enhancing Children’s Lives Organization, Midlothian, Virginia
• Erie Neighborhood House, Chicago, Illinois
• Everybody Wins DC, Washington, D.C.
• Help Us Grow Foundation (H.U.G.), Louisville, Kentucky
• Impact Network’s Read Smart Cinyanja Program, Brooklyn, New York
• The Literacy Lab, Washington, D.C.
• One World Education’s One World Academy, Washington, D.C.
• School the World, Boston, Massachusetts
• Shout Mouse Press, Inc., Washington, D.C.
• Universal Reading Foundation, Warsaw, Poland

2024 Emerging Strategies Honorees ($5,000):

In addition, five literacy initiatives in their early stages of development receive recognition and $5,000 each. These honorees are:

• Brooklyn Book Bodega, Inc., Brooklyn, New York
• Safford City – Graham County Library, Safford, Arizona
• Latinx KidLit Book Festival, Inc., Washington Depot, Connecticut
• The Sami Parliament, Karasjok, Norway
• William Paterson University (Real Men Read), Wayne, New Jersey

Additional information on the awards and previous winners, as well as an interactive program map, are available at www.loc.gov/literacy.

The United Nations General Assembly designates a number of “international days” to mark important aspects of human life and history, including International Literacy Day on Sept. 8. For more information on International Literacy Day, visit: https://en.unesco.org/commemorations/literacyday.

Direct to Complete List  of Winners and Honorees (2024)

Direct to Winners, Honorees Story Map

Direct to Complete List of Winners and Honorees (2013-)

Filed under: Associations and Organizations, Awards, Libraries, News, Public Libraries, Publishing