ST. LOUIS (June 8, 2023) – Nine PBS, in association with Turn the Page STL with Blueprint4, is proud to support the 2023 Summer Literacy Infusion cohort of St. Louis camp programs, dedicated to combating summer literacy slide.
“Children living in poverty experience years of learning loss, ‘the summer slide’ when children are not engaged in educational activities during the summer months,” stated Lisa Greening, Executive Director of Turn the Page STL, St. Louis’ chapter of the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading, and Nine PBS Early Learning Advisory Board member. “We can do better.”
This summer, six area camp organizations (Better Family Life, Boys & Girls Club, Gene Slay's Girls & Boys Club, Unleashing Potential, Wesley House, and the Gateway Region YMCA) will be infusing an hour with literacy activities each day for campers ages 5-10. Nine PBS Drawn In comic books will be included in literacy kits for each counselor, along with more than 100 other resources. The focus is for campers to have fun with reading.
As part of an ongoing Early Learning Initiative, Nine PBS provides media, curriculum, and resources to improve the educational outcomes of young learners.
“Nine PBS is committed to our community, and to doing all we can to support families across the region by eliminating barriers to learning for all children,” said Alex Stallings, Nine PBS Senior Director of Early Learning. “We are so proud to contribute public media resources to this program, including our Drawn In comic books.”
Drawn In is a multimedia literacy initiative from Nine PBS and Lion Forge Animation designed to encourage emerging readers and offers diverse character representation through various ethnicities and life experiences.
In addition to Nine PBS, contributors and funders for the summer camp literacy program include BJC, Book Harvest, the Dana Brown Charitable Trust, Clark-Fox Foundation, Emerson, Incarnate Word Foundation, Saigh Foundation, and Light a Single Candle Foundation. Literacy kits include materials from Turn the Page STL’s Summer Learning Work Team, Nine PBS, BJC School Outreach and Youth Development, City of St. Louis, Clark-Fox Family Foundation, Ferguson Municipal Library, Girl Scouts of Eastern Missouri, Missouri History Museum, Office of St. Louis County Executive, St. Louis County Library, St. Louis Public Library, United 4 Children, University City Public Library, and the YMCA.
About Nine PBS
As an essential community institution, Nine PBS magnifies and deepens understanding of our community to help our region flourish. We tell stories that move us. We meet people where they are the most comfortable consuming content. Nine PBS’s platforms include four distinct broadcast channels (Nine PBS, Nine PBS KIDS®, Nine PBS World, and Nine PBS Create), ninepbs.org, social media, the free PBS App, streaming services, live and virtual events, and the Public Media Commons. Follow Nine PBS on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and TikTok.
For more information, contact:
Sarah Brandt
Director of Communications
(314) 359-2121
sbrandt@ninepbs.org