Social Entrepreneur Impacting Millions With Relevant Reading

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Can you imagine how it would feel to be so far behind your grade level in reading that you don’t dare pick up a book? What if every book you did touch were about people you couldn’t relate to, people with life experiences so foreign you might as well be reading about martians?

D. Lacy Asbill, the co-founder of the B-corp Moving Forward Education, discovered that there are millions of kids like this in public schools in the United States and did something about it.

She summarizes the problem, “There is no question that the public education system is struggling to support students, and particularly low-income students of color. Schools need radically updated strategies to engage, motivate, and empower students who face the challenges of systematic poverty and racism.”

Lacy created a program to help kids learn to read and find books that are actually relevant to their lives.

“We’ve spent the last dozen years tutoring thousands of the most at-risk students in Oakland,” she says.

Our students, who are usually years behind in their academic skills and unlikely to pick up a book, suddenly find themselves motivated to read—they relate to the strong, culturally-relevant, and resilient characters featured in our reading selections, and they value the opportunity to connect what they’ve read to their own lives. We call this Reading with Relevance!

The program certainly faces challenges, Lacy admits. The scale of the problem is far beyond her ability to fix it alone.

“Our challenge,” she says, “has been accepting that, despite our successes, true education reform won’t be achieved through small, localized efforts like our tutoring programs. Ultimately, we must rebuild an education system that is better equipped to meet the challenges our young people face.”

Lacy Asbill, courtesy of Moving Education Forward

By helping schools help themselves, Moving Forward Education is accelerating its impact.

“We’ve become passionate about providing schools with the tools they need to make change themselves,” Lacy says. “Reading with Relevance is now being used in schools around the country, empowering educators to improve the positive outcomes of their own work!”

She continues, “We also recognize that we can’t solve the problems of poverty and racism in schools alone. There are just so many complex institutions that need to evolve around these critical social issues in order for lasting change to occur. However, educating a new generation of citizens to be social change-makers can’t hurt!”

Lacy is not discouraged by the challenges and limitations she faces. Instead, she is inspired by her vision of a different future, one that she will help to create.

We are investing in the creation of a world in which all students—regardless of race, class, or community—are able to fully develop their intellectual, creative, and social abilities. In our world, every student has an active academic community of caring adults and peers who support their growth and the achievement of their goals. Because they are invested in their own success and know that they are believed in, students take charge of their educational experiences and thrive in school. In our vision, the achievement gap has been erased!

On Thursday, April 14, 2016 at 4:00 Eastern, Lacy will join me here for a live discussion about the progress she has already made, improving lives of countless young people who are finding that relevant reading is fun. Tune in here then to watch the interview live. Post questions in the comments below or tweet questions before the interview to @devindthorpe.

Lacy is participating in a video mentoring program with Entrepreneur Xchange through the Hitachi Foundation, helping other social entrepreneurs to scale their success and impact.

More about Moving Forward Education:

Moving Forward Education is an academic mentoring program that focuses on students’ emotional well being as a critical strategy for improving their academic achievement. At the heart of our work is our deep belief that how students feel about themselves and their lives directly impacts their ability to engage with school and succeed academically. We draw together the strengths of academic literacy tutoring and social/emotional learning to inspire at-risk youth to engage with reading, accelerate their academic achievement, and develop life-changing social and emotional skills.

Since MFE’s founding in 2003, the organization has served over ten thousand students, most at no cost to their families. In addition, MFE has trained hundreds of young adults to enter careers in the educational field, equipping them with real classroom experience and meaningful professional development. MFE is a certified B Corporation, confirming its identity as a company that uses the power of business to address social issues. To learn more, visit movingforwardedu.com.

Elana Metz and Lacy Asbill help kids appreciate reading with relevance, courtesy of Moving Forward Education

Lacy’s bio:

D. Lacy Asbill is the co-founder of Moving Forward Education. She and her partner, Elana Metz, were inspired by a vision of an organization run by young people, for young people, and believed that they could leverage the power of a new generation to create fresh solutions to persistent social problems.

Lacy holds her Bachelor’s Degree in Sociology & Women’s Studies from Mills College, and an Interdisciplinary Master’s Degree from San Francisco State University. She is the recipient of the Yoshiyama Young Entrepreneur Award, and her organization has won the “Best for the World” Award from B Lab three years in a row. She has been an Oakland resident for seventeen years, and is deeply committed to inspiring positive community transformation through her work. She currently serves as a Commissioner for Oakland Unified’s high school re-design commission.

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Devin D. Thorpe

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