Equity Statement

Team Read is committed to growing educational equity and implementing anti-racist practices, through our programs and as an organization.  We do this in partnering with and impacting school systems, by increasing access and opportunity for youth who are furthest from educational justice and through the intentional selection of school partners and program participants. Our work is meant to equip, inspire, and educate our young people so they can change our world to become a just, equitable place for all. This means increasing justice and fairness within our own organization and within the larger system in which we play a part.

We seek to address educational inequities—particularly racial bias and discrimination—through quality out-of-school programming that helps to close learning gaps.  In this way, we ensure kids furthest from educational justice get the attention and instruction they need to read joyfully and well, and that their teen coaches acquire the skills they need to lead and succeed in life and work.

We work with schools and communities and students who disproportionately come from:

• Underrepresented groups, including African American/Black, Hispanic or Latina, Bi/ Multiracial, Native American/Alaskan, and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander;
• Low-income backgrounds, specifically free and/or reduced lunch eligible;
• Households where English is not the home language.

Team Read acknowledges and values the intersections of race/ethnicity, gender identity and expression, class, sexual orientation, ability, age, national origin, and religious/spiritual identities in our students, our staff, and our organizational leadership.