Heading into the summer, Owensboro Black Expo plans to help childhood literacy rates with a reading program thanks to a Dollar General literacy grant.
After returning home to Owensboro, Dracin Williams looked into the data of Black students and how they were performing at the local schools and was shocked to find how wide the achievement gap was — especially for Black and Latino students.
Immediately he started looking into different programs and foundations and found the Dollar Store Foundations literacy involvement and applied for their literacy grant.
“It’s to encourage kids through most summer months … they need that encouragement and reinforcement,” said Martiza Meeks, President of Black Expo.
Williams said the focus for this year is to help 15 incoming 3rd-graders. The program begins the first week of July and applications will be released soon on their Facebook page.
According to Williams, starting at 3rd grade will raise their literacy rates thus likely lowering the likelihood of the students growing up and entering the school-to-prison pipeline.
Williams said this program will immediately help the students and he hopes this will bring attention to something larger.
“What it should also call attention to is that we have a public school system that is not able to provide equal benefit to all students,” Williams said.
The Black Expo looks to provide an experience that is safe for the children and allows children to think and infer for themselves.
