project leader
Welcome to Chinatown _
location
137 Henry Street
(Chinatown, Manhattan)
latest update rss
Immigrant Social Services

the project

Support Chinatown small businesses and help curb the negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on our community’s children.

Welcome to Chinatown is launching the Read it Forward campaign in partnership with Immigrant Social Services—a community-based non-profit that provides academic support enrichment programs to Chinatown and Lower East Side public school students. Welcome to Chinatown is fundraising toward a goal of $26,000 through the Read it Forward campaign to purchase books from Eastern Bookstore NYC (a small business in Chinatown) for at least 500 students in grades 1-5 at ISS partner school sites in Chinatown and Lower East Side can receive 2-3 books before the holidays. We hope to provide students an accessible and joyful reading experience at home with physical books they can own! The fundraising for Read It Forward will close in the second week of December to guarantee distribution of the books to the students by Christmas.

the steps

  • Make a donation to help students own their own books to read at home (covers the cost of books at list price to also help a small business, and packaging and shipping of books to the student)
    • $65 - Storytime for one public school student
    • $130 - Storytime for 2 siblings in a household
    • $195 - Storytime for 3 siblings in a household
    • $325 - Storytime for a literature circle (5 students)
    • $650 - Storytime for an entire classroom! (10 students)
  • Spread the word and follow Read it Forward updates through our Instagram

why we're doing it

The majority of these students are from economically disadvantaged and/or immigrant households with limited access to learning materials and books, and rely on schools and public libraries for access to borrow books to bring home to read. Access to print books and owning books at home are not only key to the academic development of students, but also their future success and wellbeing. Almost 50% of households in Chinatown/LES lack internet access and even more do not have reliable internet access that is crucial for remote learning. The closing of public schools as well as public libraries also means that students have lost their source for books. The “COVID-19 academic slide” is real with the learning loss much greater for students from low-income families and families of color. 

Research on reading shows that “sharing books, talking about them, and reading them aloud is the greatest harbinger of success for our children in all areas.” Through this campaign, Welcome to Chinatown and Immigrant Social Services will also be recruiting “literacy buddies” for students who do not have households who can read these books with them. Having adults who can read together with them will further benefit students during the COVID-19 pandemic by giving them meaningful social engagement to prevent social isolation, and someone to help them connect the themes they are reading to what’s happening in the world around them.

Read It Forward will also support Eastern Bookstore NYC, a Chinatown small business impacted by COVID-19, and Lee & Low Books, one of the few independent and minority-owned multicultural children's book publishers in the country. Welcome to Chinatown will work with them to purchase titles such as Passage to Freedom and My Steps, for students receiving books through this campaign. We hope you will join us in making culturally-responsive literacy support and book ownership more accessible for these students!

budget

DISBURSED BUDGET (12.11.20):

1500 books for 500 students at 3 public school sites in the Chinatown / LES area (PS2, PS126, and PS42)




TOTAL RAISED = $16,422.00 $16,422.00
ioby Platform Fee waived $35.00
ioby Donation Processing Fee (3%) $294.75 $293.70
TOTAL TO DISBURSE= $16,127.25 $16,093.30

UPDATED BUDGET 

With the added funds, we can purchase 4 books for ~200 students across 3-4 public schools in the Chinatown and LES area.



ioby Platform Fee waived
ioby Fiscal Sponsorship Fee (5%) waived
ioby Donation Processing Fee (3%)
(Donation processing fee does not apply to match funding.)
$244
TOTAL TO RAISE = $16,244
Please note: ioby fees are estimated and will be calculated based on totals at the end of the campaign.  

 

ORIGINAL BUDGET

Our project will support the purchase of books for 200 students!

  • $65 - Storytime for one public school student
  • $130 - Storytime for 2 siblings in a household
  • $195 - Storytime for 3 siblings in a household
  • $325 - Storytime for a literature circle (5 students)
  • $650 - Storytime for an entire classroom! (10 students)

These costs also include administrative costs, such as fees associated with the book order, shipping and handling to ship the books to the students, and supplies (padded envelopes and mailing labels).



PROJECT FUNDING NEEDED = $13,000
ioby Platform Fee waived
ioby Fiscal Sponsorship Fee (5%) waived
ioby Donation Processing Fee (3%)
(Donation processing fee does not apply to match funding.)
$198
TOTAL TO RAISE = $13,198
Please note: ioby fees are estimated and will be calculated based on totals at the end of the campaign.  

updates

Immigrant Social Services

To learn more about Immigrant Social Services (ISS), visit their website here https://issnyc.org/

You can also follow them on Facebook and Instagram

‘Read It Forward’ Book Drive Raises $26,000,Gifts 1,500 Books to NYC Public School Students and Supports Chinatown’s Last Local Chinese Bookstore

Thanks to your generosity and automatic matching by ioby, together, we raised over $26,000 to provide 1,500 books distributed to 500 students over the holidays. You helped us double our initial fundraising goal!

“Reading taught me to think outside of the boundaries of the classroom and my home, encouraging creativity in all aspects of my life. It isn't just an escapeit is a tool. Reading sparked an urge to constantly learn more, to keep ingesting new information that informed not only my life but how I viewed the world and people around me. Because I started reading as a child, I've always wanted to understand everything--to know why things happened. Especially today, reading is necessary to help us participate in important conversations that shape our lives and the world. This year, I revived my reading passion and read 21 books so far, and I hope I can fit in a few more.”

 - Kristen Wong, Marketing and /Communications Coordinator Volunteer, Welcome to Chinatown

Thanks to the support of two all-star queens, Monét X Change and Yuhua Hamasaki, native New Yorkers and RuPaul’s Drag Race stars, we were able to meet our fundraising goal by December 6th. They helped promote the importance of having access to culturally-relevant books and reading to young children at home through two live readings on Instagram. 

Check out Yuhua Hamasaki read Born Bad and Red: A Crayon’s Story here. Tune in with the whole family!

The impact of your donations

Welcome to Chinatown partnered with Lee & Low Books and Eastern Book Store NYC to continue its work in supporting small businesses. 

Lee & Low Books is one of the only independent and minority-owned multicultural children's book publishers in the country. The students received specially selected titles from Lee & Low that celebrate cultural and ethnic diversity.

A diverse library is the best library! Check out the full Read It Forward book list here to help build your own culturally-inclusive children’s library.

Eastern Book Store NYC is Chinatown’s last remaining Chinese language bookstore in the neighborhood. The business was founded in 1976 and has been providing its customers with Chinese language books, calligraphy and printing materials and educational materials for students of all ages. Because of the pandemic, Eastern Book Store lost significant revenue that came from educational book purchases purchased by schools teaching Chinese in their curriculum. The store has seen a 60% decline in its revenue as schools began to close down and transition its students to virtual learning. 

Eastern Book Store will use the funds earned from Read It Forward to help cover rent and the remaining half to cover general administration expenses.

A big thank you to Immigrant Social Services (ISS) for their partnership and continuous work supporting communities in-need, and to ioby as our match partner who helped us double our initial fundraising goal. Not only did this help us reach 2x the number of students, it also gave additional and much needed revenue to at-risk businesses like Eastern Book Store NYC.

Immigrant Social Services (ISS) launched their Literacy Buddies volunteer programs along with the Read it Forward book drive. So far, 20 public school students in need of an adult to read with have been matched with Literacy Buddy volunteers trained by ISS. From December 2020 until the end of the school semester this June, students and their buddies are meeting for an hour a week to read together. Students will be reading the books they received from the book drive this month with their buddies!

Please consider continuing to support the programs ISS provides to immigrant and low-income students and families in Chinatown and the Lower East Side through making a donation and volunteering.

photos

This is where photos will go once we build flickr integration

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