Victory Sports launches literacy campaign using sports books
Friday July 31st – Buffalo, NY
Victory Sports is launching a campaign to improve literacy rates in Buffalo’s youth population.
According to Literacy Buffalo Niagara, functional illiteracy (reading below a 5th grade level) in Buffalo stands at 30% of the population, Niagara Falls at 25%, and across Erie & Niagara Counties at 20% (roughly 250,000 people). Literacy is a critical factor for employment prospects and research shows that low literacy costs more than $225 BILLION annually in the US.
We want to tackle this glaring issue by using a child’s love and passion for sports to stimulate an interest in reading books. Could be stories about inspirational athletes, the history of a sport, a guide to improving in a sport, novels with sport at the core – there are so many options!
We are launching a literacy and book distribution program that will provide sports related books to under-served and less fortunate youth across WNY. We are even in the process of writing our own book!
Following the unavoidable restrictions on our community outreach, we are delighted to be back out there on a regular basis right now. We will combine our current initiatives with this new project to try and add literacy to our efforts towards tackling physical inactivity and kids being priced out of playing sport.
- Our network of Ball-Bins provides an ideal platform for us to include books. The next challenge is the kids taking a book when they come and take a ball!
- When we distribute jump ropes via #ProjectJumpRope, and any other community giveaway, we will be able to give books away too!
There is no denying that it is an uphill road from here. We need supportive parents and community figures to encourage the books to be read once we have given them out, but we will be working hard to identify books that boys and girls can get excited by!
There is no shortage of inspirational figures out there – Kobe Bryant, Megan Rapinoe, Jim Kelly…we need to identify what sport a kid is into and use that passion to teach them more about these figures through reading.
For the younger kids, the array of sports books is vast and we’ve highlighted some options in the photos above that we will be starting with.
Keep your eyes peeled for more information and as always, get in touch if you would like to support our efforts, partner with us or learn more!
Read on, Buffalo!