Partners

The Center for Literacy collaborates with other UIC departments, many community organizations, schools, libraries, and local and state federal agencies. This page lists some of the Center for Literacy's major partners. We also have a full list of our community partnerships.

The Chicago Department of Children & Youth Services supports the Family Start Learning Centers, the Chicago Center for Early Education, and SOAR with Literacy, a Head Start-Youth Development Initiative.

University of Illinois at Chicago Office of Financial Aid recruits students to participate in the America Reads Head Start workstudy program.

Literacy Volunteers of Illinois and the Center for Literacy host two statewide literacy conferences each year.

The Illinois Commission on Community Service supports Project MORE: Making Opportunities for Reading Enrichment, an AmeriCorps national service program that supports family literacy for Head Start and Child Care programs.

Hug A Book is a non-profit organization that promotes the use of high quality children's books in early childhood programs. Hug A Book training focuses on book selection and reading, story extension activities, and ways to expand the use of books and promote early literacy skills throughout the classroom and the home.

Chicago Public Library and the Center for Literacy developed Look Out Kindergarten, Here I Come, kindergarten transition program.

The Chicago Public Schools contract with the Center for Literacy to provide a variety of professional development, curriculum development, and assessment and evaluation activities focused on improving reading achievement.

Great Lakes Center for Occupational Health & Safety and the Center for Literacy have collaborated on several workplace literacy and workplace safety programs.

City Colleges of Chicago house several Center for Literacy programs. The Chicago Center for Early Education is located at Malcolm X College and our Family Start Learning Center ESL programs operate out of the Humboldt Park Vocational Education Center (Wright College) and Westside Technical Institute (Daley College).

First Book is a national nonprofit organization with a single mission: to give children from low-income families the opportunity to read and own their first new books. The Center for Literacy collaborates with First Book to distribute 2,000-7,000 children’s books each year to Head Start/Child Care families to establish home libraries.