The Cleveland Public Library, the city of Cleveland and a host of other organizations have kicked off an ambitious goal for city residents in 2023: to read 1 million books before the end of the year.
It’s a tall order, but hopefully won’t end up being a tall tale, in a city where an estimated 66% of adults are functionally illiterate, meaning they have math, reading or language skills below a fourth-grade level, according to Cleveland’s Seeds of Literacy project.
Here’s how the project works: Register yourself, your family or your classroom (if you’re a teacher) online, then log your books read or minutes spent reading. Those who participate have a chance to earn prizes.
Marina Marquez, manager of the People’s University at Cleveland Public Library, says the partners on the project are encouraging everyone at any reading level to jump in. She says it's important to the overall health of the city that everyone reads.
“Literacy is a really, really foundational support for everything for the success of the city,” she said.
Throughout the course of the year, in addition to special events hosted to encourage people to log their time spent reading, the Cleveland Public Library will be distributing 90,000 free books, while the Cleveland Teachers Union will be giving away 50,000 books.
In addition, the campaign will include neighborhood “reading ambassadors” meeting people where they normally hang out to encourage sign-ups, a storytelling campaign with various officials talking about the importance of reading, door-knockers and yard signs, and wraps on Greater Cleveland RTA buses.
Jen Jumba, coordinator of the People’s University at CPL, said the campaign is also tracking minutes read, and will consider it a success if people log one million minutes read instead of, or in addition to, one million books read.
“Because there are some people that are learning to read or rediscovering reading, or they’ve just moved here and English isn’t their first language,” she explained. “So we’re tracking minutes so that they build that sense of confidence and empowerment to discover the joy of reading that so many of us, I think, take for granted every day.”
Holly Trifiro, chief education officer for the city of Cleveland, said Cleveland Reads is part of a broader strategy to boost literacy rates in the city. She said the mayor’s office will be putting a request before Council for further use of American Rescue Plan Act money next week to further bolster literacy initiatives.
“Some of this is about inspiring love of reading across the community, but some of it is also about, how do we invest in programs and opportunities that are going to help provide some of those literacy skills that so many folks need,” she said.
Literary Cleveland also has a "Read Local" challenge, as part of Cleveland Reads, that will award free pizza to those who read books from local authors specifically.
