Our Projects

LIT supports the school library collections at New York City’s juvenile justice detention centers; we also partner with the Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS) at Brookwood residential facility in upstate New York and are expanding our efforts to other residential settings operated by OCFS. In all of our school libraries, LIT works with city and state agencies to:

• Order and maintain curriculum-approved books and reading materials for young adult readers from the ages of 8 to 17.
• Coordinate author visits and accompanying peer-directed book discussions. Visiting authors have included Walter Dean Meyers, Tonya Bolden, Coe Booth, Matt De La Peña, Greg Neri, Lauren Oliver, Clay McLeod Chapman, and Torrey Maldonado. The young people receive personal copies of the author’s books.
• Provide literacy programming relevant to young people’s reading level, with the aim of improving literacy and encouraging enthusiasm for reading in young people.