About Us

Read to Succeed Buffalo is a non-profit organization leading the fight against low literacy in Buffalo, an issue which:

keeps families mired in poverty,
hinders children from succeeding in school,
keeps adults from qualifying for good jobs, and
limits our city's ability to create a highly-skilled workforce to compete in the global economy.

We have brought together more than 50 coalition members to battle the literacy issue and have developed a strategic plan and new collaborative and creative service models to knock down the barriers to literacy for people of all ages.

Our Focus

Our goal is to lift and strengthen our entire community by empowering every individual to strive for literacy success, improving their quality of life and opening doors to opportunity for the individual, their families and our community.

Read to Succeed Buffalo works with the community to develop and implement solutions that address the literacy needs of people of all ages including:

General literacy including reading and writing skills
Financial literacy
Computer literacy
Health literacy
Workforce literacy.

We believe that improving literacy in Buffalo takes 100 percent participation throughout our community to reach our goal of 100 percent literacy.

The Crisis of Low Literacy in Buffalo

The City of Buffalo faces staggeringly low rates of literacy. Without the ability to read, write and communicate, our children cannot succeed in school, adults cannot find and keep jobs that will sustain their families, and our city cannot compete effectively in the global economy. This translates to increased poverty for Buffalo, already ranked third poorest in the nation.

Consider these statistics:

30% of adults in the City of Buffalo - 65,000 people - read at or below a 5th grade level.
40% of children entering Kindergarten do not meet minimum benchmarks for language and literacy skills.
60% of 4th graders are not meeting New York State learning standards.
39% of children entering 9th grade drop out of school before graduating.

Without an improvement in literacy rates, it will be nearly impossible to reduce poverty rates in Buffalo. Without strong literacy skills, children cannot grow into productive, employable adults, and adults will not be able to obtain jobs that can lift their families out of poverty.

The Creation of Read to Succeed Buffalo

While many individuals and organizations work hard to improve literacy, it was not until Read to Succeed Buffalo (RTSB) was created that a collaborative, systemic and strategic approach to literacy was put in place.

Read to Succeed Buffalo has brought together more than 50 organizations to make systemic changes and improve literacy throughout our community. We completed a citywide strategic plan for literacy in 2006 with participation from more than 200 community stakeholders working in 17 different task forces. Implementation of the plan started in 2007. Since that time over $4.7 million has been raised to begin implementing the plan.

Read to Succeed Buffalo's aim is to transform the current, fragmented system to one that is comprehensive, unified, and measurable. Now in our third year of implementation, the organization works with the community to develop and implement solutions that address the needs of people across the entire age span. Our focus is general literacy, as well as financial, computer, health and workforce literacy.

Funders Collaborative

Read to Succeed Buffalo has been generously supported by a unique partnership of like-minded foundations that have a history of strong support for education and for literacy. The Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo, The John R. Oishei Foundation and The Margaret L. Wendt Foundation joined forces a decade ago to pool resources and funds to form the Education Fund for Greater Buffalo. That effort has evolved into Read to Succeed Buffalo and we are grateful for their continued support of literacy as the founders and leading members of the Funders Collaborative.