Theory of Change

Transformative Literacy Communities

At Sunnyside Literacy Lab, we are creating a multi-layered local response to the literacy crisis.

The school system is overburdened, and innovation often takes place in silos. Real change will require learning spaces that extend beyond the schoolhouse and loop back into it.

Our goal is to expand our concept of public education, not replace it.

At Sunnyside Literacy Lab, we have five commitments:

• Partnering with existing high-integrity community-based organizations

• Providing direct quality literacy services using research-based curricula

• Developing and caring for in-service educators while paying equitable wages

• Working hand-in-hand with caregivers

• Supporting a culture of literacy at the neighborhood level

With these commitments guiding our daily practice, our long-term goal is to nurture a space where learners, educators, and caregivers can reflect on their experiences and improve outcomes within the current education system. From there, they may cultivate hope, relationships, and new approaches to education.

We seek to provide a home base for our educators to receive care, coaching, and connections. While developing their instructional practice, they also tinker with emerging literacy and educational solutions.

We prioritize hiring educators of color in Title I schools. Developing leaders who are embedded within the system strengthens the educational ecosystem as a whole. We believe that when educators participate in innovating communities, their commitment, sustainability, and instructional practice improve. Most importantly, courage is nurtured in communities that support people to dream, try, fail, and iterate.

We imagine our alumni will become courageous school administrators, slam poetry cafe owners, and PTA mobilizers for literacy justice. No matter the path, we believe that an educated future means an educator-led future.

We measure impact by tracking our learners' literacy growth and engaging our educators and caregivers in ongoing qualitative narrative documentation. These approaches ensure accountability to the learners we serve while expanding the circumference of our ripple effect.

Our partnership with The Greenhouse, a collective of Queens-based social innovators stewarded by The Episcopal Mission of Sunnyside, supports our long-term vision of supported experimentation, so learners of all ages can flourish in diverse and unforeseen ways.