TOPICS:
Curry College, in partnership with Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston (BGCB) and Literations, celebrated the launch of a transformative early literacy initiative aimed at improving reading outcomes for young children in underserved communities in the City of Boston. Leaders from all three nonprofits gave remarks, and City of Boston and Massachusetts representatives also joined to show their support.
In collaboration with BGCB and Literations, Aicardi Early Steps will expand and enhance current Literations high-impact, one-on-one literacy tutoring to students in grades 1 through 4 who are reading below grade level.
This after-school program is being funded through a generous donation from Curry alumnus Tom Aicardi ’87, Hon. ’25, and his family. “As someone who grew up in a very under-resourced neighborhood in Boston and struggled as a young child in the public school system, having an after-school program like this would have been a game changer for me,” said Aicardi. “My family wants to give every child in these Boston areas a chance to increase their literacy skills so they can excel in life.”
This partnership comes at a time when statewide data shows that only about half of Massachusetts third graders meet literacy benchmarks, with even more disparities for Black and Hispanic students. The initiative targets these inequities by bringing evidence-based, personalized reading interventions directly to the neighborhoods that need them most—starting with a one-year pilot program at the BGCB locations in South Boston and Blue Hill.
Massachusetts State Senator Liz Miranda, Massachusetts State Representative Russell Holmes, and Boston City Counselor At Large Julia Mejia all noted the importance of reading as well as the role that the Boys & Girls Clubs played in their lives growing up. Kristen McSwain, Senior Advisor for Early Childhood and Director of the Mayor's Office of Early Childhood also spoke about Mayor Wu’s Boston Reads initiative and the connections between the goals of the two programs.