The teen members of Jack and Jill of America, Inc. – South Central Region are taking matters into their own hands to confront Houston’s literacy crisis.
And their help is much needed.
The statistics are beyond troubling. Houston ranks in the bottom half of the nation’s most literate cities. Only 27% of Houston third graders are reading on grade level, making them four times more likely not to graduate from high school. The insidious national movement to ban books, especially those by Black authors featuring Black protagonists and spotlighting Black history, offers even more roadblocks for Black students as research shows.
Making matters worse, a new report from the Education Trust reveals that white authors and illustrators are represented in school curricula nearly seven times more than Black authors.
Enter “Noah Knows,” a passion project that was the brainchild of 18-year-old Noah Cathey, who is the Teen Foundation chair for the Region.
“With books being removed from our schools, we’re putting books back into those communities,” said Cathey. “So, we’ve given books to Black communities, three shelters and one hospital in the area for them to distribute to kids who don’t have those resources. Books by Black authors and published by Black publishers, not only puts books into the hands of our kids, but also educates them with their stories and their narratives.”
Cathey led the project, along with Regional Teen President Caden Young and the Regional Teen Executive Board. The project tapped the community service spirit of Jack and Jill – South Central teens from Texas, Louisiana and New Mexico. And for Cathey, the initiative was very personal.
“When we made the book list, we asked, ‘What books do they need?’ One, books by Black authors are important. We want to give these students books made by Black people so that they’re empowered. But also books that are important to us teens. So, I’ve read Sophie Washington. I’ve read The Hate You Give. I’ve read Kicks. I’ve read All Rise: The Story of Ketanji Brown Jackson. So, there are books that were important to me and now I get the chance to give those to other kids for them to read in their lives. So, it’s been really cool,” shared Cathey.
Cathey’s project fit in perfectly with Jack and Jill’s larger organizational initiative, according to LaShanda Reed Larry, regional director of the South Central Region.
“The Bring Back the Books initiative was created to help address the gap due to these library closures by providing books to partners serving the impacted areas; specifically books that are culturally relevant and diverse,” said Larry.
Kenyatta Peoples of Jack and Jill Missouri City was on hand to supervise and support the teens. She said teens packed over 800 bags of books that were given to the Mission of Yahweh, SHAPE Center, the Boys and Girls Club and the Texas Children’s Hospital Center.
And Peoples was just excited and upbeat as the teens who started their service in the wee hours of Saturday morning, Oct. 14.
“The teens came up with this. Noah came up with the idea of, ’What can we do? How can we have an impact in the community?’… They wanted to be able to give back to the community and to the teens throughout the area. So, this was one way that they wanted young people to continue to learn, in particular, about African American authors and culture and to be able to grow through literacy,” added Peoples.
