Library of Congress Announces 2025 Literacy Awards

From the Library of Congress (Full Text of Announcement:

Twenty-four organizations working to expand literacy and promote reading were awarded the 2025 Library of Congress Literacy Awards this morning on International Literacy Day. The Literacy Awards program, sponsored by David M. Rubenstein since 2013, and by the Kislak Family Foundation since 2023, honors promising initiatives that provide exemplary, innovative and replicable strategies that promote literacy.

The Library of Congress continues to draw attention to the urgent need to achieve universal literacy through the program.

“This year’s winners and honorees, based in various states and countries, have a particular focus on family and community,” said Acting Librarian of Congress Robert Randolph Newlen. “Through the generosity of David M. Rubenstein and the Kislak Family Foundation, the Library of Congress is excited to recognize the organizations’ demonstrated efforts to improve individual literacy skills while also strengthening the communities they serve.”

The 13^th David M. Rubenstein Prize is awarded to Literacy Partners in New York for their outstanding and measurable contribution to increasing literacy levels in eight large cities across the country and Puerto Rico. Top prizes are also awarded to Literacy Mid-South, the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities’ Prime Time Family Reading Program and Building Tomorrow. Additionally, 15 successful literacy practices are recognized, as well as five new literacy initiatives that demonstrate significant creativity and promise in their approach to literacy.

Prizes and Recipients

2025 David M. Rubenstein Prize ($150,000): Literacy Partners, New York, New York
Founded in 1973, Literacy Partners takes a two-generation approach when it comes to improving literacy rates in the country. Literacy Partners supports adults, parents and caregivers in nurturing the literacy skills they and their children require to thrive in their communities through innovative and evidence-based literacy programs. Their efforts advance social and economic opportunities for adults, children and communities. The organization offers a variety of literacy-promoting programs such as culturally relevant digital and physical resources including Emmy Award-winning TV series; books; community workshops in both English and Spanish; adult classes on parenting, health, social-emotional learning and high school equivalency degrees; and early literacy support for families with young children. In 2024, Literacy Partners provided close to 40,000 hours of education and served 3,792 parents and 7,200 children. Almost half of their students earned their high school certificates and a third of their students enrolled in college last year.

2025 Kislak Family Foundation Prize ($100,000): Literacy Mid-South, Memphis, Tennessee
Literacy Mid-South has been providing literacy services to both children and adults in the Greater Memphis region since 1974. Over the past 50 years, Literacy Mid-South evolved from a volunteer tutoring program to the largest provider of free literacy resources in Memphis, supported by robust partnerships with key community stakeholders. Literacy Mid-South attributes their success to building community-wide investments in literacy development across organizations, government entities, for-profit partners and individuals. The organization currently works with elementary schools as well as summer and after-school programs and increases access to books for the children they serve. For their adult students, Literacy Mid-South empowers individual learners to identify their own life goals and tailors fundamental literacy and English language instructions until the goal is met and a new one is identified.

2025 American Prize ($50,000): Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities’ Prime Time Family Reading Program, New Orleans, Louisiana
The Prime Time Family Reading Program was developed in 1991 to promote intergenerational literacy by engaging the entire family. Prime Time Family Reading offers six-week programs that focus on creating literacy-rich homes by modeling open-ended reading and discussion methods that caregivers can use to develop critical thinking skills and regular reading habits with their children at home. The program expanded during the pandemic to include at-home versions of the six-week program, a podcast that models the Prime Time-style reading discussions with real families, and workshops for caregivers to learn strategies for engaging their children in critical thinking activites at home. As a result of the Prime Time Family Reading Program, children are developing listening and speaking skills, vocabulary, reading and pre-reading behaviors and the joy of reading, while caregivers and families experience an increase in bonding, positive verbal communication and at-home reading time. A longitudinal study of the program’s effectiveness showed that students who completed the Prime Time Family Reading program outperformed students who have never participated in the Prime Time Family Reading program at every grade level from third through 12^th grade.

2025 International Prize ($50,000): Building Tomorrow, Indianapolis, Indiana
Building Tomorrow was founded in 2006 to counter the low learning outcomes and limited access to formal education in rural Uganda. Building Tomorrow is dedicated to community-powered learning and envisions literacy and numeracy for all children. As a result, Building Tomorrow’s Fellowship program invites local university graduates to spend two years supporting education in rural communities. In addition, community members who are passionate about education become community education volunteers and help enroll out-of-school children in school as well as Building Tomorrow’s signature foundational literacy and numeracy program, Roots to Rise. Since 2015, 650 Building Tomorrow fellows and nearly 15,000 community education volunteers have reached more than 560,000 children. In 2025, Building Tomorrow expanded its mission to Rwanda.

2025 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:

• Book Harvest’s Books from Birth Program, Durham, North Carolina
• CitySchools Collaborative, Washington, District of Columbia
• Digital Inquiry Group, Palo Alto, California
• Indy Reads, Indianapolis, Indiana
• Knowledge Empowering Youth, Nairobi, Kenya
• NABU, New York, New York
• NPR’s Student Podcast Challenge, Washington, District of Columbia
• Philadelphia Writing Project, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• READ Global, San Francisco, California
• Reading Assist Institute, Wilmington, Delaware
• Richland County Public Library’s Education Studio, Columbia, South Carolina
• Scottish Book Trust’s Bookbug Program, Edinburgh, Scotland
• SML Good Neighbors, Inc., Moneta, Virginia
• Start a Library Trust’s The National Read Aloud Initiative, Nairobi, Kenya
• WETA’s Colorín Colorado, Arlington, Virginia

2025 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:

• Dyslexia Alliance for Black Children, New Rochelle, New York
• Loxion Mobile Library, Cape Town, South Africa
• Start Lighthouse, Inc., Bronx, New York
• Teach for Change Nigeria’s Literacy Amidst Violent Conflict Initiative, Abuja, Nigeria
• Welcome Home Jersey City’s Literary Initiative, Jersey City, New Jersey

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