Read It Forward

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.

• 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

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!