Our Pandemic Pivot: Reading as a Skillset for Survival

When COVID-19 struck…

Words Alive transitioned years of experience with in-person programming into a robust virtual distance learning solution in a matter of days. Not only have we maintained relationships with our partner schools and organizations during the shift to distance learning, we have developed new online programming that will continue beyond COVID-19 and beyond the San Diego area to serve a national population.

Since early March 2020, we have seen over 50,000 people from across the country, and around the world, come to us for help. Words Alive programming has successfully evolved to:

Create an online platform to help teens use the power of words to cope with social distancing. Journaling prompts, mindfulness activities, advice from best-selling authors, and more give young students of all ages a safe place to share their voices. This newly renamed platform, Treat Yo’ Shelf, remains our most visited content on our website, with more than 1,250 visits to our top 10 prompts.

Implement a daily, virtual storytime to fill the gap left by shuttered schools and libraries. We have shared over 250 stories in English and Spanish as part of Story Station, which have been viewed over 250,000 times. Story Station bridges an enormous gap in access to books for families from underserved communities. This was made possible by the permissions allotted by publishers during COVID-19. (Note: Because of changes in publisher rights, most of these stories are no longer archived on our website.)

Create a permanent platform for over 425 students to share their voice via writing, artwork, and stories featured in our virtual gallery, Novel Ideas. Sponsored by Christopher Weil & Company, the three exhibits of Novel Ideas, feature submissions from San Diego, across the country, and around the world. Novel Ideas showcases responses to Treat Yo’ Shelf activities, video read-alouds from young students who serve as reading role models, and student art inspired by books about activism.

Activate virtual/at-home volunteers to support our response to the pandemic, and to sustain our programming beyond COVID-19. Our active volunteer core currently consists of over 1,000 people, from 20 states and around the world. For a small nonprofit, this is astonishing, humbling, and motivating. Words Alive has been featured as a leader in virtual volunteerism on panels among partners.

Provide over 130 San Diego teachers in under-resourced schools with distance learning support and remote learning resources. Many of our trained volunteers have been invited to join their classrooms virtually, allowing students to be inspired and connected by the power of reading while we are physically separated. This fall semester, we have activated over 100 classrooms and counting.

Reimagine how our core programs can be delivered both in the classroom and in the living room. We have gotten more than 20,000 books donated by our community into students’ homes. We have also created and delivered more than 2,500 “learning kit” versions of our programming (books, activities, parent guides, videos, and text message support) to support at-home learning for the whole family.

Train community agencies to support a love of literacy for the students in their care. We worked with seven San Diego agencies on effective reading engagement strategies and how to layer reading and stories into their daily work. We anticipate many more partnerships in the coming weeks. 

Use a wide range of social media platforms not just as a promotional tool, but as a way to deliver our new virtual programming – with resounding success. Our Facebook content alone has delivered our messaging to over 1 million individuals.

Testimony from teachers, students, volunteers, and parents can be found here on our website.