In honor of Black History Month, our faith-based literacy program is blessing children with books written by African American authors, and our team is so excited!

The Literacy Links Program, founded by our CEO Dianna Hobbs, falls under the umbrella our 501c3 nonprofit organization, Empowering Everyday Women.

“Literacy Links empowers kindergarten through third-grade learners by offering free tutoring to boost basic reading, writing and spelling skills to close the literacy gap,” said Hobbs in a statement. “Our team is leveraging the power of representation to build interest in reading, and we’re happy to be a part of building proficient readers and future leaders.”

The belief that representation matters is what has driven Hobbs, a homeschooling mother of four, and our staff members, as well as volunteers comprising a network of parents, teachers, tutors and program administrators, to seek out Black children’s book authors.

Education experts have long known that children more easily relate to characters on the pages of their favorite books that look like them. This insight guides Literacy Links directors’ philosophy and fuels persistent efforts to supply reading materials with positive images and messages for minority children to enjoy.

Literacy Links, a collaborative community effort, has received a major boost from generous donors and supporters like Project FLIGHT, a Buffalo-based not-for-profit organization devoted to promoting literacy in children and caregivers through school and family literacy initiatives.

Also, in connection with partnering organizations, many local and national authors answered Empowering Everyday Women’s appeal for books by submitting their own works to be included in the Black History Month initiative, contributing to its overall success.

“We have so many books, and the children are loving them,” said Alexandra Thomas, a Literacy Links program director. “By offering tutoring in reading and providing interesting books that kids are excited to read, we have seen so much progress and have generated more interest around reading.”

Hobbs added, "Investing in our community by focusing on increasing education, food security and health and human services is what we care about. Any way that we can help show the love of Jesus through special programs and outreach efforts that positively impact the lives of individuals and families lights a fire under our team.”

That fire has been burning brightly over the past few years, as Empowering Everyday Women has expanded its local and regional efforts globally through partnerships with other like-minded organizations dedicated to alleviating human suffering around the world.