The power of a Community Literacy Hub is not found in a single organization, program, or funding source. It comes from what happens when a community brings its collective strengths together around children and families. That promise is visible in Read On Phoenix and Read On Southwest Valley, two collaborative efforts that show what is possible when schools, local government, literacy organizations, families, and community partners organize around shared goals.
Read On Phoenix brings together schools, community organizations, literacy providers, and local government to accelerate school readiness and kindergarten through third grade literacy outcomes. Valley of the Sun United Way and the City of Phoenix serve as community leads.
Read On Southwest Valley reflects that same spirit of collective action. It is facilitated by Valley of the Sun United Way to identify gaps and enable collaboration across early literacy efforts, including school readiness, chronic absenteeism, and professional development.
Organizations such as Make Way for Books bring early literacy expertise and family focused strategies, while many other partners contribute knowledge, relationships, programs, resources, and services based on the priorities of each community.
But some of the most important partners are families and community members themselves. Families bring lived experience, knowledge of their neighborhoods, an understanding of the barriers they encounter, and aspirations for their children. Their voices help ensure that Community Literacy Hubs reflect the communities they serve, rather than becoming a collection of programs designed for communities without communities.
The strength of a Literacy Hub, therefore, is not measured simply by the number of organizations participating. It is measured by how effectively partners listen, collaborate, align their strengths, reduce duplication, fill gaps, and share responsibility for improving outcomes for children and families.
From Partnership to Collective Action
That is where Valley of the Sun United Way adds value. Our role is not to own the Community Literacy Hub. The vision belongs to the community. Our role is not to replace organizations already doing important work. Our role is to help connect those efforts so that, together, they can have greater impact.
We convene.
We listen.
We connect.
We align.
Through Read On Phoenix and Read On Southwest Valley, we help bring schools, families, municipalities, early childhood organizations, literacy providers, funders, businesses, and community partners together around shared goals. That collaborative infrastructure helps communities move from a collection of individual programs toward a more coordinated strategy for children and families.
And that distinction matters. A Community Literacy Hub is not about deciding what a community needs before listening to the community. It is about bringing people to the same table, examining the data, listening to families, recognizing existing strengths, identifying gaps, aligning resources, and building solutions together.
Connecting Local Action to Arizona’s Literacy Vision
This work also connects local collaboration to a larger statewide vision. Read On Arizona leads the statewide collaboration to advance the strategies, policies, and investments needed for children to learn to read at grade level and succeed in school.
The Arizona Literacy Plan 2030 identifies four key drivers:
- Building educator capacity in the science of reading.
- Scaling evidence based literacy solutions.
- Engaging families and communities to support school readiness and literacy.
- Expanding access to high quality early learning.
The plan also identifies reducing chronic absence to pre pandemic levels by 2030 as a scale to succeed strategy.
Community Literacy Hubs can help create a bridge between statewide priorities and neighborhood level action. Read On Arizona provides statewide direction and alignment. Read On Phoenix and Read On Southwest Valley show how cross sector collaboration can organize around literacy at the community level. The Hubs create a place where that collaboration can become tangible for children and families.
It is where family engagement becomes personal.
It is where early literacy resources reach families.
It is where partners can coordinate rather than operate in isolation.
It is where schools and families strengthen relationships.
And it is where a statewide vision for stronger readers becomes a community commitment to every child.
The Role We Can Play Together
The most important lesson from this work may be that no organization needs to own the solution for everyone to take responsibility for the outcome.
Schools bring educational leadership.
Families bring knowledge, voice, and aspiration.
Organizations such as Make Way for Books and many other partners bring specialized expertise and resources.
Municipal partners bring community connections and broader systems alignment.
Funders help provide resources that allow collaborative strategies to take root and grow.
Read On Arizona provides statewide literacy leadership and alignment.
And Valley of the Sun United Way helps connect the pieces.
That is the work we are helping to shape and strengthen: not replacing community leadership, but supporting it; not taking ownership of a community vision, but helping create the structure that allows that vision to become coordinated action.
Because ultimately, the Community Literacy Hub belongs to the community. When schools, families, community organizations, municipalities, funders, and neighbors share responsibility for helping children become strong readers, we are building something much greater than a program.
We are building stronger readers, stronger families, stronger schools, stronger communities, and a stronger Arizona.
“The power of a Community Literacy Hub is not about who owns the work. It is about what becomes possible when a community shares the work. Our role at Valley of the Sun United Way is to help connect those strengths, align the resources, elevate family voice, and turn a shared vision for children into collective action.” – Dawn Gerundo, Valley of the Sun United Way
