In Tampa
HUD Joins Grade Level Reading Campaign

HUD Secretary Julián Castro met and read with children at The Read, a public housing development part of Encore, in Tampa.

HUD Secretary Julián Castro visited Tampa on Friday, April 29, to announce a significant and promising partnership between HUD and the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading in an effort to develop and enhance children's reading skills.

During his Tampa visit, Secretary Castro met and read with young children at The Reed, a public housing community northeast of Tampa's downtown adjacent to the city's Central Avenue's Tempo District. HUD will team up with the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading to support the great work public housing agencies, including the Tampa Housing Authority, are doing as partners in their local Campaigns for Grade-Level Reading, and to encourage and support others in joining their local campaign.

"Empowering our children with the basic skills they need to become successful helps them to reach their full potential," said Secretary Castro. "There's no more important mission than to use housing as a platform for success and we need to make certain that our residents, particularly their children, have every opportunity that education can provide. I'm thrilled that the Tampa Housing Authority has taken on this initiative and will serve as a model for other housing authorities."

The Campaign for Grade-Level Reading (GLR) (http://gradelevelreading.net) is a national partnership to ensure that more children in low-income families succeed in school and graduate prepared for college, a career, and active citizenship. It is a collaborative effort by foundations, leading social-sector organizations, business leaders, government agencies, states and communities that focuses on an important predictor of school success and high school graduation-reading proficiency by the end of third grade. Through the partnership, local Public Housing Authorities will be encouraged to work with local GLR Campaign communities to address the solution areas that are critical to achieving reading proficiency -- school readiness, school attendance, and summer learning. Promoting healthy on-track development and supporting parent success are also embedded in the partnership efforts.

The partnership in Tampa between GLR and the Tampa Housing Authority, will reach properties that are home to about 5,500 children age 17 and younger. While the partnership will not provide additional funding for the campaign, the collaboration will provide extra help in schools and summer camps and will enable literacy programs being run in public housing community centers, making them easier to access for parents who cannot afford cars. It will also complement other tools being used in Hillsborough County literacy campaigns to develop children's reading skills, such as the my ON Program ((http://hillsborough.myon.com) ), with its online library with over 6,000 children's books.

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