Charlotte, N.C. (August 7, 2018) – Bank of America has issued a challenge grant to Read Charlotte, pledging $50 for every parent or caregiver that enrolls in Ready4K text messages in the 2018-2019 school year, up to a total of $100,000.

Read Charlotte brought Ready4K to Charlotte-Mecklenburg in 2017 as a free and easy source of tips and advice for families to help prepare their kids for Kindergarten. About 2500 local families with kids ages 0-5 years old have received a total of about 340,000 text messages thus far. The texts deliver age appropriate tips and advice proven to boost learning in young children.

This fall, Ready4K is expanding and is now available for Mecklenburg County families with children from birth through third grade. The K-3 content spans across language and literacy development, socioemotional learning and even early math.

“We are very grateful to Bank of America for this new initiative to get more families signed up for Ready4K in Mecklenburg County while also helping to make sure we have the resources we need to do our work,” says Read Charlotte Executive Director Munro Richardson. “Empowering families to support literacy at home is one of our key strategies in getting 80% of our third graders reading proficiently by 2025. We know that Ready4K is a powerful tool to make it easier for families to know what to do.”

“To help our community thrive, we have to ensure our children are reading on grade level,” said Bank of America Charlotte and North Carolina Market President Charles Bowman. “Reading is one of the greatest predictors of future success, so we’re excited to support a program that helps families support literacy at home.”

To sign up, Mecklenburg County families can text ReadCLT to 70138 or visit ReadCharlotte.org/Text. Text messages are available in English and Spanish.

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