Throughout LitWorld’s 15 year history, we have seen time and time again how access to safe, joyful learning can transform lives. These spaces are especially critical when preventing the “summer slide”: a phenomenon where children lose significant knowledge during out-of-school time. This slide can set young learners—particularly those from low-income families—back in their education by years, depriving them of the opportunity to reach their full potential.

That’s why we developed LitCamp: a breakthrough program that redefines summer learning by using social and emotional support as the gateway to literacy. Together with Scholastic, LitCamps ensure that every child has the chance they deserve to learn, grow, and thrive.

THE HISTORY OF LITCAMP

LitCamp began as a seed idea in 2010 when our partners in Harlem, NY and Nairobi, Kenya expressed their community's needs for joyful learning during out-of-school time. That summer, the LitWorld team co-created LitCamps: safe spaces for stories flexible enough to be enjoyed anywhere, any time.

In 2015, we decided to bring the joy of LitCamp to even more children by partnering with Scholastic, the world’s largest publisher and distributor of children’s books. Together, LitWorld and Scholastic developed a structured version of the program for summer schools across the United States. Today, LitCamp and its many iterations (including LitCamp en Español and LitCamp at Home) are run across thousands of classrooms every summer, engaging over a million young learners since 2015.

We believe literacy is a human right that belongs to all people. 122 million children across the globe cannot read. LitWorld is changing this.

Here are our Top 5 Reasons to support the right to read and in this way impact millions of people in the world who are hungry for it. The right to read is an information-empowering, communication-delivering, people-connecting, comfort-inducing, opportunity-ensuring tool for sustainable change.

Top 5 Reasons for the Right to Read

Because zip codes shouldn’t stop kids from having the same chance to become super readers. LitWorld works across communities in the United States and around the world in 25 countries to bring afterschool and summer solutions to closing the reading gap.
Because helping kids read is a powerful, sustainable investment that gives young people the power to change their own lives. Did you know that without literacy skills individuals are less likely to participate in democratic processes and have fewer chances to fully exercise their civil rights? Through year-round participation in LitWorld LitClubs, kids gain the skills they need to be school, career and civic ready.
Because kids who read are happier. Through our dynamic LitCamp program (reaching 60,000 kids and counting!) kids get a whole new kind of summer school, one that teaches them to read and also brings them joy. When kids don't get to read what they care about during the summer, they very often fall up to two grade levels behind! LitWorld is solving for this.
Because when girls get to read, they are far more likely to get to go to college and be economically independent. So, LitWorld focuses 2/3 of our programming on women and girls. The HerStory Campaign helps us achieve this goal.
Because a kid who reads is going to grow up to be a citizen who cares about his or her community. LitClub members report more active engagement and leadership in their communities after just one year in a LitClub. We seek to expand our programs not only for the benefit of one child’s right to read, but also for what that ripple effect does for everyone else.

We invite you to honor someone who has inspired YOUR reading life. Could it be your first grade teacher, your mom, your grandfather, or a best friend? You can give kids who are most hungry for the right to read the chance to fulfill their biggest potential.

Make a donation of any amount in honor of the person in your life who inspired you to read, write and follow your dreams.

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