Spoiler Alert! GLR Week 2022 is the latest but by no means the last expression of the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading’s continuing pursuit of “bright spots and silver linings.” The week-long collection of state-focused, constituency-tilted and plenary events affirms “bright spots and silver linings” as a more-than-mantra strategy through which promising explorations, discoveries, innovations and improvisations prompted by the pandemic are recruited to play catalytic roles in co-constructing the hoped-for “new normal.”

We hope your calendar will allow you to attend at least a few of the virtual events running from Monday, July 18, through Friday, July 22. At the core of the entire week are the sessions hosted by CGLR’s network of state lead organizations. During GLR Week 2021, 24 states planned and sponsored 47 events recognizing the progress made and the lessons learned. These webinars, fishbowls, documentary screenings, panel discussions and story times were well attended and well received. The ongoing feedback affirms that the messages and lessons inspired by the “bright spots” theme continue to resonate with the 2,400+ GLR Week attendees over the years.

GLR Week 2022 will tap into that energy. Whether affiliated with a coalition-leading organization, local funder or program partner, you will discover that GLR Week 2022 offers multiple opportunities to consider which “bright spots and silver linings” bring the most potential and promise for contributing to early school success, equitable learning recovery and more hopeful futures for the children of economically challenged, fragile and marginalized families.

CGLR’s work is driven by its mission, amplified by its partners and made possible by a growing number of investors, some long-standing and others recently joining CGLR’s national funder coalition: Bezos Family Foundation, Heising-Simons Foundation, J. F Maddox Foundation, Joseph B. Whitehead Foundation, Overdeck Family Foundation, The Patterson Foundation, Vanguard and W.K. Kellogg Foundation.

We grateful for the additional support received from an increasing number of individuals and family funds, most of whom choose to remain anonymous. We are especially appreciative of those funders’ adopting the “more than money philanthropy” approach to finding solutions to the challenges facing the children of economically challenged, fragile and marginalized families.

Looking forward,

Ralph R. Smith
Managing Director

The Campaign for Grade-Level Reading (CGLR) Appreciates the Generous Support of Our Enterprise Investors