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Virginia Beach, Virginia

The Rightly Dividing Literacy Project, LLC. 

The Rightly Dividing Literacy Project, LLC. is dedicated to eradicating the reality and stigma of illiteracy, especially as it relates to ensuring justice and building the self-efficacy of those bound by it. Founded in 2023, the Project integrates environmental justice into literacy by providing equitable access to reading for historically marginalized communities. In Norfolk, that includes Barraud Park, Cottage Heights and Lindenwood, whose 3,200 residents represent an outsized number of the 16.2% of the city living below the poverty line. The RDLP offers a range of services to support individuals of all ages. These include one-on-one coaching, group reading and writing workshops, and public speaking coaching. The organization’s experienced literacy coaches are dedicated to meeting each individual’s unique needs. RDLP focuses on ecoliteracy and family literacy as a means of diversifying the Project’s reach in combating illiteracy.

Illustration from Black Like The Rainbow. Courtesy of Brynda E. Parker

The RDLP is a BIPOC-led organization, run by Dr. Brynda E. Parker, an award-winning educator and author of There Ain’t No Pews in Hell and the children’s book Black Like the Rainbow. The organization operates in Norfolk, VA, whose population is 57.8% people of color. According to the EPA’s Environmental Justice Screening Tool, the downtown neighborhoods where RDLP focuses its work (Barraud Park, Cottage Heights and Lindenwood) rank in the 84th percentile for low income, the 91st percentile for unemployment, and the 88th percent for high school graduation rates. With the support of local volunteers, RDLP seeks to address these inequities by closing the literacy gap. Their approach includes the use of pre-, mid-, and post-age reading and writing assessments, placement, and individualized coaching. RDLP has been embraced by the local Civic League. The organization was also recently a recipient of a $20,000 National Fish and Wildlife Foundation Coastal Resilience subgrant.

Brynda E. Parker speaks at a Tidewater Coalition for the People event. Photo Courtesy of Brynda E. Parker.

Contact
Brynda E Parker, Founder/Chief Literacy Coach
Strategies
Education
501c3 Tax Deductible
Yes
Accepting Donation
Yes