About Us

Learn more about who we are

Literacy Now provides reading readiness and reading intervention programs, interactive parent engagement, as well as trained volunteer mentors for our Lunch Bunch mentoring program - elements that contribute to children’s long-term success. Our work supports children and their families, by working in HISD and Aldine ISD schools and on community sites throughout Houston in order to bring these critical services directly to those in need. Our primary goal is to empower our students to read on grade level by the end of 3rd grade thereby making it much more likely they will remain on track to graduate from high school and be ready to pursue their postsecondary goals.

Since 2006, our programs have made a significant impact on the community, impacting the lives of more than 22,000 children and parents. But there is much more we can do and need to do. We have implemented an ambitious five-year expansion plan to reach more students at the campuses we already serve and at additional high-needs schools. These plans are even more urgent now as a result of COVID-19. The pandemic has had a devastating impact on the children we serve, causing them to miss months or, in many cases, over a year of school and leaving them even further behind.

Our Mission

Literacy Now is dedicated to transforming communities by empowering children and families through literacy, leadership and life skills.
Executive Director

JACQUE DAUGHTRY

Jacque received her bachelor’s degree in Business, with an emphasis in Personnel Management, from the University of Houston and has 25 years’ experience in accounting and business management in the for-profit sector. Her passion for serving children and her community as a church volunteer and in multiple volunteer capacities at each HISD school her children attended, paved the way for her to help launch Making It Better in 2006. Jacque considers it an honor and privilege to serve the organization’s students, their dedicated staff and board of directors, and their Houston ISD partner schools.

2021-22 By The Numbers

People
Served

0
Students
0
Adults

53%

Female

47%

Male

51%

Hispanic

40%

African
American

5%

White

3%

Asian

1%

Other

Ages: 2 months – 11 years old

12,000

Books Distributed

93%

low-income Household

809

k-2nd Grade students served in reading intervention in 14 HISD and 1 aldine isd schools

493

Parents/Caregivers served through parent workshops and Literacy Distribution kits

98

3rd - 5th Graders served in Lunch Bunch Program on 4 Campuses

100

children and their parents hopped on board the Reading Express mobile classroom

610

Dedicated volunteers provided 1,310 hours, having an estimated economic value of more than $39,000

Over the past 15 years

we have served over 22,000 children and parents