<p><br /></p> September 08, 2021 Happy International Literacy Day! How our professional mentors find fun and creative ways to get their youth excited about literacy! At Friends of the Children-Chicago we know the importance of literacy in promoting curiosity, learning, and self-esteem for our youth. All our professional mentors - Friends - find fun and creative ways to get their youth excited about literacy. Here are just a few recent examples: Friend Lynette made reading fun by introducing it in a new environment, the park! Violet* and Tanisha* enjoyed reading in a fun and safe space. Lynette also took the opportunity to teach them about the beauty of their skin and together they read “Skin Like Mine” while enjoying the fresh air. Friend Chanel got creative and found a way to involve literacy in an outing while exploring one of Vanessa's* passions. Vanessa does not always enjoy reading but she loves make-up! Chanel set up a salon where each item was labeled, and Vanessa had to read the labels so that Chanel could choose what she wanted for her makeover. Vanessa was thrilled to read the names of all the products and give her Friend a makeover. Friends Aaron and Lynette created an obstacle course for their youth where the first challenge was building words out of the provided letters. The youth then got to be active and race through the rest of the course. Travis* who is usually easily discouraged and frustrated when building words, got so excited to compete with the other kids. He was eager and determined to create words even when it was hard because he was having so much fun! Our Friends will continue to come up with creative solutions on how to make literacy fun and be with our youth as they learn. No matter what.