Literacy improves lives by expanding capabilities and opening doors of opportunity for youth. Blueprint4 has gathered a list of articles and resources to help camp providers learn more about the importance of literacy and embed practices into your camps.

Articles and Resources

• Guide for Selecting Anti-Bias Children’s Books: A resource created by Teaching For Change to help educators and childcare providers select books that are culturally aware and teach children to be anti-bias and anti-racist.
• How to Create a Knockout Summer Literacy Program: A resource for educators and providers wanting to encourage children to read over the summer. This article offers ideas on how to provide kids with access to books and incentivize them to read.
• Summer Reading Programs To Earn Free Books and More: A list of summer reading programs available for kids to earn prizes from various national organizations.
• Ideas for Integrating Reading In Camp: The American Camp Association has compiled a list of ideas to help camp providers integrate and expand reading opportunities for their campers.
• Design a Summer Reading Camp: Ideas and Tools for improving the Recruitment and Retention of Students for Summer Programming: This guide offers a variety of ideas and tools to help districts increase enrollment and attendance rates in summer programming to help reduce the widening achievement gap and improve students’ reading outcomes.
• Reading is Fundamental: Literacy Central: A list of resources including lesson plans, videos and a digital library to infuse literacy into your programming.
• Ways to Increase Digital Literacy: This resources provides information on how to help kids learn digital literacy skills in order to be competent in a modern world.
• How Social Media Affects Teenagers: This resources provides information on how to help kids learn digital literacy skills in order to be competent in a modern world.
• Common Sense Digital Education: Common Sense has created digital citizenship lessons for all ages that take on real challenges and digital dilemmas that students face today, giving them the skills they need to succeed as digital learners, leaders, and citizens tomorrow.

Local Organizations

• Ready Readers: Ready Readers expands literacy for young children in low-income communities through high-quality books, strong relationships, and literacy related experiences.
• TurnThePageSTL: Turn the Page STL is St. Louis’ city-county wide literacy initiative dedicated to increasing the number of children that are reading at or above grade level by the end of third grade.
• St. Louis Book Fair: The Greater St. Louis Book Fair sells hardback and paperback books, plus records, CDs, DVDs, comics and ephemera for prices as low as a couple of dollars to empower youth with literacy, empower the community through ongoing support of local charities, and empower our volunteers through experiences that create lasting memories.
• St. Louis Black Authors: St. Louis Black Authors of Children’s Literature is committed to fostering awareness about the importance of early literacy by creating innovative opportunities for all children to have access to Black children’s literature.
• St. Louis County Library: Through providing a variety of services the St. Louis County Library District aims to provide the resources to enrich individual minds, enhance lives and expand perspectives.
• St. Louis Public Library: SLPL’s mission is to provide learning resources and information services that support and improve individual, family, and community life through a variety of services, programs and initiatives at its 16 locations in St. Louis City.