Founded in 1997 by a motley crew of young people’s authors and illustrators, the NCBLA is a small, action-oriented education and advocacy organization with 501(C)(3) not-for-profit status.
- We create and develop special literacy projects and events that educate adults about young people’s literacy needs and solutions for those needs.
- We create and develop special literature, arts, and humanities projects and events that combat aliteracy, encouraging young people to become lifelong readers, proficient writers, and deft communicators.
- We create and develop special literature, arts, and humanities projects and events that enhance young people’s critical and creative thinking skills.
- We advocate for the rights of every young person to have ready access to reading materials in school and public neighborhood libraries.
- We advocate for young people’s right to read.
We believe that literacy is essential to the development of responsible citizens in a democracy. And we believe that citizens, both young and old, must have equal access to stimulating books and information sources that invite them to dream and give them the tools to achieve their dreams. As writers and illustrators, teachers and mentors, parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles—as citizens and neighbors—our ultimate question is always how can we best serve all of our nation’s children?
The Our White House website, along with the printed anthology it supplements—Our White House: Looking In, Looking Out—work together as core components of our mission to educate, inform, and advocate for young people, literacy, literature, and libraries.
We invite you to check out our other education website, thencbla.org, for ideas, information, and resources to help you get and keep kids and teens reading and writing.