History

Mission History What We Do How Are We Different? Who We Serve Curriculum Impact

Emily Kirven (Executive Director), a former English teacher, founded READ 718 in 2015 to tackle the literacy issues she observed firsthand while teaching at a public middle school in Brooklyn. After years of witnessing how her students’ poor reading skills affected their ability to perform in all of their academic subjects (and knowing that most could not afford private tutoring to address the problem), Emily felt compelled to create a solution: a free or low-cost literacy program responsive to children’s needs and abilities. 

Since opening our doors in January 2015, READ 718 has provided over 16,000 hours of one-to-one literacy tutoring to over 350 children -- many of whom have returned for multiple cycles --, trained over 400 volunteers, provided 17 educational workshops to parents and educators in our community, and launched our Saturday READing Room, Summer READing Room, READ 718 Remote, READ Up and Kids Book Club programs. In September 2019, we opened our second READ 718 site (in Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood), allowing us to double our in-person reach.

READ 718's Covid-19 response -- the development and implementation of READ 718 Remote (our first-ever remote programming) -- ensured that our READers continued to make reading progress during the pandemic. Even after we have successfully reopened our literacy centers (September 2021), we will continue with and expand READ 718 Remote as a separate but complementary program to READ 718 After School, allowing us to reach READers in multiple ways.