As the Friends Austin program continues to grow, our commitment to providing literacy support for our youth also deepens; 76% of our youth currently read below or well-below benchmark levels for their grade, which is a significant challenge we aim to change. Our Literacy Project Manager works with Friends to develop education based Roadmap Goals, advocate for educational resources, and build meaningful partnerships to support our youth. This spring, Friends Austin successfully completed a pilot literacy program with a team of graduate students in the Educational Psychology Department at the University of Texas at Austin. We are expanding this initiative for the 2025-26 school year to serve 30 Friends Austin youth with dedicated literacy intervention in our partner schools.

Our Friends have been trained in administering benchmark assessments for all program youth, which they then use to guide the educational and learning Roadmap Goals for their youth at the beginning of each school year. This summer marked our fifth annual Book Camp, and bilingual tutors worked with 50 youth over two months to prevent the “summer slide” of literacy loss, support youth in making gains in their literacy, and develop the joy of reading.