|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Literacy Partners Menlo Park is bridging the socioeconomic divide of Silicon Valley by promoting literacy for all ages and members of the community. By funding local educational programs, the nonprofit aims to provide everyone with the opportunity to learn, improve their careers and do their best in school.
In 2025, Literacy Partners provided more than $75,000 in grants to support organizations serving toddlers to seniors. These include the speech and language program at All Five, classroom grants for teachers through East Palo Alto Kids and English proficiency night classes through the Rosalie Rendu Center. Since Literacy Partners was founded in 2020, it has supported about seven local organizations and distributed more than $300,000 in grants.
Through its various partnerships, Literacy Partners is also able to help community members find their footing in local volunteerism rooted in education and dissemination of literacy, said President Mike Goodkind. It opens up opportunities for people to help English learners in the community through tutoring and career training.
“It gives them an anchor in the community that’s beyond just their job or the more casual social connections,” he said. “I think it also helps them understand the community better.”
Especially within the diverse population of Silicon Valley, Goodkind explained how volunteering can help bring two sides of the community together — wealthy tech employees and low-income workers.
The organization aims to facilitate opportunities for community members to help each other and at the same time, bridge the wealth and English literacy gap.
“Not everybody in Silicon Valley is a trillionaire. I know I’m not, so I get that from personal experience but we’re creating a place for people to give and we’re a terrific place to get started,” Goodkind said.
He also said he believes that increased diversity is useful education and volunteering offers more opportunities for people to have “meaningful interactions that allow them to see other people’s challenges on a day to day basis.”
Literacy Partners is entirely run by volunteers and is funded by individual donors and corporations. Goodkind said the biggest grants come from former tutors, community members and family foundations.
For more information on how to support Literacy Partners visit mightycause.com/organiation/Literacypartnersmenlopark. If you are interested in volunteering, contact Goodkind at m.goodkind@literacypartnersmenlopark.org.
