Our mission
The Methuen Literacy Partnership empowers our diverse community to champion literacy as a shared responsibility. Through collaborative action, family engagement, and equitable access to resources, we work together to ensure every child develops strong reading skills that open doors to lifelong learning, opportunity, and success.
How we’ll work
Community-Driven Discovery: For the next several months, we are conducting listening sessions, stakeholder mapping, and needs assessments to ensure Methuen’s literacy strategy is shaped by the real experiences of children, parents, and educators across the city.
Equity-Focused & Evidence-Based: Our approach will align evidence-based programs, family engagement, book access, and community activities with a clear focus on ensuring all children, regardless of background, receive the support they need to succeed.
Collaborative Leadership: This is Methuen’s campaign—rooted in partnership and shared action.
Our strategic priorities
Recognizing that literacy challenges require a whole- community response, we unite families, schools, community organizations, and local leaders around the shared belief that reading proficiency is a fundamental right and community responsibility.
Based on community feedback, we have identified three priorities for our Grade-Level Reading Campaign emerging plan, and will have a dedicated working group for each priority—small teams of community members who meet monthly to share ideas, connect resources, and help move our work forward.
Early Literacy
Free parent–child workshops, book distribution, and early literacy support for families with children ages 0–5.
Community Engagement
Pen pal book exchange program, community events, book drives and give aways
Summer Reading
Community-based reading clubs, free books, and events to prevent summer learning loss.
Each of these priorities is designed to remove the barriers families named and build on the strengths they identified.
With established partners including the Nevins Library's literacy programs, Methuen Public Schools' recent curriculum adoption, and strong municipal support, the initiative builds on a foundation of community commitment while expanding reach and coordination.
Our Next Steps
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Phase 1: Building Our Foundation (COMPLETED)
From August 2to December 2025, we focused on listening and learning. We mapped out all of Methuen’s literacy partners—including schools, libraries, nonprofits, and local businesses—and surveyed the community to better understand what’s helping or hindering children’s reading success. This phase built the foundation for shared action by creating our community engagement plan and ensuring every voice has a place in shaping the work ahead.
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Phase 2: Measuring What Matters (In Progress)
Right now, we’re taking a close look at what’s working in Methuen — like reading growth, library usage, and survey feedback — to understand where we’re making progress and where more support is needed. Together with our partners, we’re identifying five key measures that will help us track success in real time. Soon, we’ll launch a public dashboard so everyone can see how Methuen is moving closer to our goal: every child reading on grade level by third grade.
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Phase 3: Implementation (March - June 2026)
This March, we’ll bring the community together to look at the root causes behind reading barriers and explore solutions that make sense for Methuen families. Your voice will directly shape our three-year literacy action plan—complete with clear goals, measurable outcomes, and the pilot programs launching later this year. We’ll also be recruiting volunteers and working group members during this phase to help roll out our early literacy, community engagement, and summer reading efforts.
Contact us
Interested in working together? Fill out some info and we will be in touch shortly. We can’t wait to hear from you!