In early 2023, current Berkeley High School juniors Lea Hireche and Adalilly Chu started the Right Writers club. It was designed to be a safe space for students to write during lunch. As the club continued to branch out, activities such as reading buddies, book author talks, and other events related to reading and writing were added to the club’s description.
Nearly two years later, the co-presidents decided to transition The Right Writers from a lunch club to the Youth Literacy Project, a non profit organization that falls into a larger literacy category, not solely writing.
A main program within the project is Reading Buddies. BHS student volunteers sign up to visit Berkeley libraries where they read stories and play word games with children. Despite the simple concept, reading buddies has had a large impact. Students improve their cognitive skills while learning to work with children, and the kids learn that reading can be fun.
“We’ll try to keep the kid with the same volunteer,” Hireche said, “that way the child and volunteer can really build a relationship, which can make the child more comfortable with reading overall.”
Chu recalled a specific moment when the program made a difference in a kid’s life.
“There was this one kid who was telling us how he didn’t have friends at school, and then we became his friends and he was really happy in our programs,” Chu said.
The idea of becoming an official non profit organization was first sparked by a comment a librarian made during a particular reading buddies session. “(The librarian) had mentioned how a lot of the work we were doing was already so much like a nonprofit,” Hireche said, “that comment was what inspired us to research and be like, ‘wow maybe we could be a nonprofit’”.
To officially become a registered non profit, a large amount of government paperwork had to be filed. Furthermore, a board of directors was organized and by laws to govern the organization were drafted.
“They have a lot of detailed information that we have to be very sure about. They’re government documents, so you don’t really want to just mess around with them,” Hireche said.
Hircehe and Chu gathered students with an interest in reading and writing to form the board of directors. Each member of the Youth Literacy Project is assigned to organize a certain aspect of the non-profit. For example, volunteer director, fundraising coordinator, and treasurer are some of the student-filled roles.
Matilda Starbuck, a BHS junior and current art director for the Youth Literacy Project was originally in the Right Writers club.
“I really liked the club’s community and just had a fun time going every week,” Starbuck said, “When I heard it was going to be a nonprofit, I was excited to get involved.”
Starbuck is now responsible for designing and illustrating logos, posters, merchandise, and more.
The many hours that went into setting up and becoming an official nonprofit were all worth it, according to Chu.
“We couldn’t really do much as a club,” she said, “but as a nonprofit, we can really get our name out there and get more like funding, which can lead us to have even greater impact.”
Running the organization isn’t always smooth, however.
“We definitely don’t want to have somebody do way more work than like other people. To make sure that everybody can be here on this date for this event and arrange everybody’s schedule is pretty hard,” Chu said.
Hireche touched on the emotional challenge of running the organization.
“There’s also some fear and nervousness because it’s such a big thing, there’s so much lying on your shoulders,” Hireche said.
Even though the Youth Literacy Project is just getting started, they have already implemented several programs.
Besides reading buddies, the organization posts weekly writing prompts on a variety of topics with the winner earning a feature on the organization’s website. The prompts provide a fun challenge for writers wanting to put their work out into the world.
The founders also aim to organize other workshops related to reading and writing, expand reading buddies to other places outside of public libraries, and generally host more events.
Despite the ups and downs of forming and running the organization, it has overall been a resounding positive experience, according to Hireche and Chu.
“It’s just so nice to see the joy we can spread through these kinds of programs that we create,” Hireche said.