313Reads is a coalition committed to working side by side in collective impact with citywide, statewide, and national partners toward literacy access, equity, and justice to support grade level reading.
313Reads is dedicated to mobilizing alongside our community to ensure literacy equity so that all students are reading at grade level by the end of third grade.
Based on our collectively developed strategic plan and mission, 313Reads offers our core values. These are the promises we make to the collective.
Equity & Justice
Equity cannot only be a talking point. We are committed to developing a shared vision of equity among partners and turning that into clearly defined actions that are reflected upon regularly by the team and partners. We are committed to continually growing in our work toward equity and justice.
Professional Learning & Resources
Professional learning and resources that are aligned with evidence-based practices are essential. We understand that research and best practices in early language and literacy instruction should inform all we do in the name of providing our children with equitable access to grade level reading. We commit to offering professional learning resources in the form of research briefs, professional learning communities, and evidence-based practices.
Books & Digital Texts
Access to books in the home is strongly correlated with children’s emergent literacy skills and reading; culturally affirming books are evidenced to support children’s positive identity development. Books and digital texts are also needed in programs for literacy supports and interventions. We commit to supporting partners with access to diverse texts through larger network partners. We commit to access to books that: are culturally relevant and affirming; support evidence-based reading instruction; and increase children’s access to engaging books to support book joy and literacy learning at home.
Data Sharing
Data Sharing to Support Funding, Reporting, and Continuous Improvement. We share aggregated data from the coalition’s common standardized assessment to inform population level impact and build the network’s Community Impact Scorecard. We also provide program partner level data dashboards through our program evaluators. This supports the capacity of all organizations to continuously improve programming and impact, as well as secure funding and report on funding. We are establishing data sharing agreements with K-12 public schools in Detroit so that we can follow program participants across multiple years and document the impact that summer and out-of-school time literacy supports and interventions have on school-based literacy. We commit to the continuous improvement of our data collection and sharing in order to support the continuous alignment and improvement of city-wide programming to reach population impact for grade level reading and literacy equity.
Collective Funding Opportunities
Collective funding for summer and out-of-school time literacy supports and interventions allows us to work smarter together with shared knowledge, skills, and tools for successful grant writing. We commit to actively collaborating with partners to seek collective, equitably distributed funding. We commit to transparency of scoring rubrics and decisions when mini-grants or other funding is made available through 313Reads and our fiduciary.
Creating Space to Share Our Expertise
Collective Impact means we value and make space for all experiences and expertise. We are grateful for the perspectives, ideas, and lessons our members have to share, and we commit to being lifelong learners who are all growing our knowledge and skills in supporting early literacy and literacy equity. 313Reads commits to holding and creating spaces that foster open dialogue among partners.
Democratic Decision Making
Collective impact is built with shared structures and norms that prioritize equity of voice and democratic decision making. This happens at our Coordinating Council, Early Language and Literacy Table, and Summer and Out of School Time Learning Table. Action Teams. We commit to holding space and creating systems that support partners to democratically make shared decisions, as well as advocating for those decisions in all spaces. We commit to transparency of decision making.
Amplifying Work of Partners
Amplifying Work of Partners and Co-branded Materials for Social Media. Lifting each other up is important as we collaborate toward impact. We commit to sharing partners’ work and opportunities with our networks and providing co-branded materials when applicable. We commit to creating and sharing social media content to support program partners in their work of serving children, families, and communities with evidence-based, culturally sustaining programs and practices.
Community Engagement Support
Internal capacity is an issue of equity. We commit to sharing partners’ community and volunteer opportunities within our networks and to support with specific asks around these topics.