Queens #LiteracyLiftsNYC Rally April 10, 2018

Nice work NYCCAL! Today we had a successful kick off to our adult literacy tour of the boroughs. Participating in this morning’s rally in Queens were: Chinese American Planning Council, La Guardia CIET, Queens Community House, Make the Road New York, Sunnyside Community Services, the YMCA, and Jacob Riis Neighborhood Settlement. With well over 100 students and supporters in attendance, and five media outlets on hand, including NY1, this was a strong start to our efforts to raise the profile of the issue for the Mayor and City Council.
 
In fact, just this afternoon the City Council released their response to the Mayor’s Preliminary Budget, and in it they called for the Mayor to baseline his portion ($6m) of the $12m investment from FY2018. You can view their full response here.  As an FYI, the Council also called for a new $3m citywide citizenship fund to be administered by MOIA. The funding would be used to support citizenship application fees for  households with limited incomes, as well as provide financial literacy classes.

A roundup of some of the press we received for our rally in Queens this week: Queens Chronicle, NTD TV, China Press, Times Ledger, & World Journal.