The Power of Collective Impact: The Read by 4th Story (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)

In this inaugural Crucible of Practice Salon, we first heard from Jenny Bogoni, Executive Director of Read by 4th, the GLR community in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She began by giving an overview of Read by 4th — the concept that they are protecting every child’s right to read, the range of partners and volunteers involved in the work of the coalition and their accomplishments by sector.

Bogoni then went on to explain their theory of change, which clearly speaks to how they envision and do the work toward ensuring grade-level reading for all of Philadelphia’s children. She detailed the ways Read by 4th has operationalized that theory of change through their convening structure with a steering committee organized around systems change, family engagement, and community mobilization. Finally, Bogoni introduced an “Advocacy Strategy Framework” that helps explain how Read by 4th works to advance systemic change.

Simone Partridge, also with Read by 4th, discussed the initiative’s communications strategy — Reading Promise — and highlighted the way their communications and storytelling work lifts up both expert guidance and simple but critical ways that families and communities can take the lead on the core work of Read by 4th. She also outlined the ways their communications strategy seeks to prioritize speaking as peer — with, not to — the community as a whole. She illustrated these concepts by talking about specific Read by 4th print and video ads and PSAs as well as events such as Reading Promise Week. Partridge also talked about the importance of listening and how they have been able to conduct a community listening process that was packaged as a communications campaign but was an important way to get feedback from the community.

Wanda Mial, with Global Citizen, discussed the power of Read by 4th’s grassroots effort — Reading Captains. Embedded in an overall belief in the importance of creating space for communities to be the change agents, the initiative works to mobilize the city block by block, connecting families with resources, spreading important literacy messages and building relationships. Mial talked about the importance of citizen action around social justice as a way to engage community volunteers. She talked about the history of the block captain political model in Philadelphia as a familiar model for Reading Captains and emphasized that knowing your community and neighborhood context is critical to designing and building on work that will be embraced.