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Read To Succeed Buffalo has united with local artist Brian Nesline to unveil the Letters for Literacy project, a unique holiday gift appropriate for children and adults.

On Thursday, December 9th Read To Succeed Buffalo will unite with local artist Brian Nesline to unveil the Letters for Literacy project, a unique holiday gift appropriate for children and adults.

Read to Succeed Buffalo is an example of how local foundations are abandoning passive check writing and now are working to encourage innovation, overseeing investments, encouraging collaboration and creating programs.

A new Literacy Success Center, sponsored by Read to Succeed Buffalo and the Community Action Organization of Erie County, has opened in the CAO Edward A. Saunders Community Center, 2777 Bailey Ave.

Kenmore-Town of Tonawanda Union Free School District Superintendent Mark P. Mondanaro noticed the irony of the title of the book he was going to read to third-grade students in Bridget Spitler's class at Edison Elementary School. The Superintendent, a former English teacher, was participating in the "Read for the Record" literacy awareness initiative that hoped to break the world record for the most people reading the same book on the same day.

A world record could now be in the works. It's called Read for the Record, a campaign aimed at encouraging literacy. Community leaders have now joined schools, child care centers, and community organizations in an attempt to break the world record for the number of children reading the same book on the same day.

Smallwood School: Grace Jamieson, 7, reads from "The Snowy Day" to her second-grade class at Smallwood Drive School, Snyder. The students joined others nationally in a bid get the most children reading the same book on the same day.

Read to Succeed Buffalo is going to try to break a world record today. They're joining in a nationwide effort to get the biggest number of children reading the same book on the same day, or being read to from the book. The idea is to stress the importance of literacy for youngsters. The book in question? "The Snowy Day" by Ezra Jack Keats, a 1963 Caldecott Award winner and the first full-color picture book to feature a small hero who is black.

On Thursday, October 7th, thousands of local children, educators and adults, passionate about literacy will join a national movement attempting to set the world record for the largest number of children reading the same book on the same day with a participating adult.

For the third year in a row, a local children's literacy nonprofit has joined a national effort to encourage adults and young children to read the same book on the same day: On Thursday, schools and day care centers throughout Western New York will join a national project and read "The Snowy Day" by Ezra Jack Keats.

A collaborative group in the City of Buffalo has won a $500,000 federal grant to help support children and families living in poverty.

A local collaborative led by M&T Bank has been awarded $500,000 from the federal government to help build a "Buffalo Promise Neighborhood" to provide a network of support services to children living in one of the city's poorest areas.

Before you head home tonight, stop down to 392 Pearl Street. There, at The Read to Succeed Buffalo Community Art Project, a reception will be held for twelve local artists who have donated their efforts to promote literacy.

Buffalo, N.Y., July 22, 2010 - Read to Succeed Buffalo has announced the availability of summer writing workshops for children who are participating in the Mayor's Summer Reading Challenge. The writing workshops are designed to assist youth with completing the writing portion of the Challenge and help participants win prizes.

A local nonprofit has added nearly half a million dollars to its arsenal to help combat illiteracy in Buffalo, after three area foundations pooled together resources to commit the funds. Read to Succeed Buffalo will put $454,074 toward its current operating budget, said Michael E. Benzin, the organization's director of development. The money not only will pay the bills but pave the way for more fundraising, he said.

Imagine a childhood where books do not exist. Parents who do not read to you or take you to the library. Parents, who sadly, do not know how to read themselves. Imagine how differently your childhood, my childhood, might have been. That, you might think, does not happen here, not today in our neighborhoods. But it does. And it is exactly why Read to Succeed Buffalo (RTSB) is launching a new campaign, a community art project, that they hope will promote the need for a more literate community and, in particular, to promote the idea of family literacy; parents or caregivers and children reading together.

There's something new and wonderful at this year's Home and Garden Show that should make architecture buffs smile. Brian Nesline, best known for his Faces of Buffalo series, depicting scenes made from mosaics of faces, has created the series of black and white "letter" photographs as part of his Buffalo Photo Alphabet Project. "Letters for Literacy" is a partnership between Nesline and Read to Succeed Buffalo to raise funds to support efforts to improve literacy throughout Buffalo. A portion of all profits will go to Read to Succeed.

The Urban Readers Book Club, an adult book club and The Book Club, a teen book club, both formed through Read to Succeed Buffalo, will host local/poet author Ntare Ali Gault as their guest speaker for a "Read and Speak."

Read to Succeed Buffalo, an organization dedicated to improving literacy in Buffalo, named the Judge Betty Calvo-Torres chairwoman of the board of directors for 2010.

Kudos to the Buffalo & Erie County Public Library, Literacy Volunteers of Buffalo&Erie County and Project Flight for their recent announced collaboration to fight low literacy in our community. Working together under one roof will not only save costs, but, more importantly, will allow them to coordinate efforts and better serve the residents of our community to improve literacy.

Read to Succeed Buffalo, a collaborative literacy organization dedicated to improving literacy in Buffalo, appointed Gordon Gross a board member. Gross is a founder of Gross Shuman Brizdle and Gilfillan, a Buffalo law firm.

Last school year (2008-09), 40 percent of children entering Kindergarten in Buffalo Public Schools (BPS) lagged behind their peers in Kindergarten readiness. Read to Succeed Buffalo (RTSB) announced today that they are beginning to see a change.

As the new director of development for Read to Succeed Buffalo Inc., Michael Benzin will design a funding plan for the coalition that focuces on literacy campaigns. In more than two decades of work, the Western New York native has held similar posts with with stories related to your companies of interest.

SPECIAL TO THE NEWS I was reading up about the Seneca Falls Convention, where the movement for women's rights began, and thinking about its connection to modern- day issues when I came across the following on Wikipedia.com: "In the 1840s, women in America were reaching out for greater control of their lives. Husbands and fathers directed the lives of women, and many doors were closed to female participation. Society prohibited women from inheriting property, signing contracts, serving on juries and voting in elections. Women's prospects in employment were dim: they could expect only to gain a very few service-related jobs, and were paid about half of what men were paid for the same work." While reading, I thought, "Wow, this sounds familiar!" Back then, legal barriers prevented women from doing these things. Today, these laws are different. But low literacy is a barrier that holds people back. A large portion of our population is unable to achieve the American Dream because of a lack of literacy skills. People are reaching out for greater control of their lives, but low literacy is prohibiting millions of Americans from inheriting property, signing contracts, serving on juries and voting in elections. Doors are closed to their participation in society.

A piece of Buffalo will soon reach President Obama in Washington. The president will receive the Declaration of Literacy and Justice for All and a set of resolutions from local and national literacy advocates who met during Saturday's Right to Literacy Convention. The declaration was just one of several activities organized at the convention, sponsored by Read to Succeed Buffalo and Literacy Powerline.

The public is invited to a free daylong convention on literacy from 8 a. m. to 2 p. m. today in the Hyatt Regency Buffalo, 2 Fountain Plaza. The Right to Literacy Convention will bring together educators, community leaders and concerned citizens from throughout Western New York and across the country to declare the "inherent right to literacy and justice for all," organizers with Read to Succeed said.

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) - Concerned citizens and leaders say it's time to tackle illiteracy. Saturday they met for the Right to Literacy Convention at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in downtown Buffalo.