Sarah Bell

Sarah Bell of Seaford Delaware addresses the issue of illiteracy and functional illiteracy. After listening to a lecture in high school about the problem, she was shocked at the statistics and did more research about her own community and state. Bell’s research showed many low-income homes have few or no children’s books and access to children’s books. As a result, Bell started the Read to Succeed Delaware project, which tackles illiteracy and functional illiteracy locally, and statewide by educating parents about ways they can help their child achieve greater literacy skills and increasing the amount of children’s books in the homes of low-income children. Through the project, she formed and led a team of 12 adults and youth. Using her research, they helped her create and install literacy centers in all 15 Delaware State Service Centers, where families go when they need financial assistance. Each literacy center consists of a tub of children’s books and a bulletin board containing suggestions of activities that parents can do to increase their child’s brain development and literacy skills.