By Holly Westerfield

Muncie, IN— International Youth Day was created by the United Nations to highlight the challenges many children and young adults face, particularly those who are poor or don’t have access to a good education. It is also a day to celebrate the potential of the world’s children and acknowledge the importance of their education as the community leaders and policymakers of tomorrow.

To celebrate, here is a list of verified charities that work hard to support the education of the next generation.

Ferst Readers: According to the National Commission on Reading, the single most significant factor influencing a child’s early educational success is an introduction to books and being read to at home prior to beginning school. Reading to young children creates basic literacy skills, improves their later test scores, and helps social development. The Ferst Readers Program addresses this by sending participating children age-specific books and resources to their homes until their fifth birthday. Since their founding in 1999, they have observed higher overall testing scores and higher graduation rates in communities that participate in the program. Charity Rating - Website

Adopt a Classroom: Several surveys have shown that somewhere between 25-33% of US families can’t afford to buy their children’s school supplies. They also show that 98% of teachers purchase supplies for students so they don’t have to go without. In fact, the average American teacher spent $750 of their own money to stock their classroom in the 2020-21 school year. (Some teachers reported spending well over $1,000.) Adopt a Classroom allows donors to give money directly to specific classrooms or schools. Afterward, you will get updates on the impact your donation has made in the classroom. Charity Rating - Website

Donors Choose: As featured on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Donors Choose is a vetted charity that helps teachers pay for their classroom supplies. Their website lists verified projects from teachers across America, allowing donors to contribute to any project that they want. Donors Choice takes that money, purchases the requested items, and ships them directly to the teacher. Afterward, donors will receive photos of the project in action, a thank you letter from the teacher, and a report illustrating how every single dollar was spent. Over 60% of public schools in America have had at least one project filled by Donor Choose, who have so far given away $1,308,048,814 to classrooms in need. Charity Rating - Website

Worldreader: 400 million children worldwide lack basic literacy skills. Worldreader helps combat this by providing physical books, online resources, and e-books for children around the world. They start with pre-primary programs, which reaches out to support families and communities in encouraging reading to young children. This ultimately promotes cognitive learning, language growth, and social-emotional learning. Then in their Primary Grade Reading Program and Youth and Adolescents Program, Worldreader curates and supplies teacher guides, student workbooks, digital textbooks, and supplementary books relevant to the curriculum. So far, they have brought reading to over 20 million people in 48 different countries. Charity Rating - Website

Little Free Library: The Little Free Library Organization was founded in 2012 in an effort to try to build community and remove all barriers to book access. The main organization provides grants to high-need areas and collaborates with schools, public libraries, and businesses to bring little libraries to communities across the globe. It is a volunteer-led organization, so there are many ways to help. You can build your own little library, donate money to help little libraries get made somewhere else, or you can donate books wherever you find room in a little library near you. This organization has over 150,000 library boxes worldwide which share over 70 million books. Charity Rating - Website

Afterschool Alliance: In the United States, there were 7,673,467 kids left alone and unsupervised between the hours of 3 and 6 p.m. in 2020. In the America After 3 PM survey, 81% of working parents said afterschool care provided them with peace of mind and helped them keep their jobs. As a nation, we also widely recognize that afterschool care helps keep children safe and out of trouble, helps them develop teambuilding skills, and practice social skills. Studies have shown that children in afterschool programs attended school more often, received better grades, and were more likely to graduate. However, roadblocks such as transportation, availability, and affordability have increased in the last decade. For every child in an aftercare program, there are three more waiting to get in. Afterschool Alliance addresses this issue by providing resources and training for afterschool programs nationwide. Afterschool alliance also helps by showcasing exceptional programs, meeting with members of Congress to increase public funding for aftercare programs (which is supported by 87% of parents) and publishing comprehensive reports on best teaching practices and the impact of afterschool care. Charity Rating - Website