Hoy & Scholastic kick off campaign promoting Literacy for Latino Children.

Scholastic and Hoy launched a year-long joint Public Service Announcement (PSA) campaign to promote the Latino early literacy program, Lee y seras (Read and You Will Be).

Lee y seras, developed by Scholastic in collaboration with the National Council of La Raza and the Verizon Foundation, emphasizes the critical role that Latino parents play as their child’s first teacher. The free curriculum employs storytelling, cooking and singing to help parents prepare their young children for school. This initiative, which is now two years old, has successfully brought its literacy-building program to communities nationwide, from New York to Los Angeles

The twelve-month Lee y seras campaign features families in settings that lend themselves to literacy-building activities and offers valuable tips for parents and caregivers to help get Latino children ready to start school. These announcements can be found both in Hoy newspaper (Los Angeles and Chicago editions), hoyinternet.com and http://www.leeyseras.net. The joint campaign expands the relationship between Scholastic and Hoy that began with Family Literacy Expert Teresa Mlawer’s bi-weekly column ¿Sabias que … ? The PSA campaign represents Hoy’s commitment to literacy and reinforces its mission to support Latino families.

“Ensuring that Latino children become strong readers and develop crucial learning skills is one of our community’s top priorities and the Lee y seras curriculum helps parents prepare their kids for bright and prosperous futures,” said Javier Aldape, General Manager, Hoy Los Angeles. “Hoy is honored to work with Scholastic to raise awareness of this wonderful program and make it easily accessible in print and online.”

“Scholastic’s mission is to help all children read and learn,” said Karen Proctor, Vice President of Scholastic Government and Community Affairs. “We are pleased to work with the team at Hoy to launch this PSA campaign and reach its readers in Chicago and Los Angeles.”