In 2025, the Alachua County Board of County Commissioners,
the Children’s Trust of Alachua County, and the Alachua County Public Schools
released the Alachua County Comprehensive Literacy Needs Assessment (ACCLNA)
completed by the Lastinger Center at the University of Florida.  The
assessment highlighted key activities and priorities necessary to improve
communitywide literacy for residents of all ages.  It identified how to support
reading for life by coordinating efforts to build and expand school
readiness, implement evidence-based training for ACPS teachers in K-2
classrooms, and to provide access to intervention programs for
children, youth and adults who need to improve their reading skills.

The Center for Nonprofit Excellence (CNE) was asked to
organize the project and build partnerships with experts in the science of
reading, literacy skill-building, and the local school system.  During 2025, CNE brought a workgroup of partners
identified in the ACCLNA together to create a project outline, set goals, and
build a timeline. Two Town Hall meetings were held at Eastside and Santa Fe
High Schools, and feedback was solicited from groups already working to promote literacy in our
community, including the Alachua County Library District (ACLD), Alachua
County Campaign for Grade Level Reading project, the University of Florida
Literacy Institute (UFLI), the Early Learning Coalition (ELC), the College of
Education (COE), and Alachua County Public Schools (ACPS) to build the
priorities for the project. 

In October 2025, the PEAK Literacy Catalyst project provided
direct services to students across the community in need of literacy
intervention, expanding their existing programming and creating a Cohort of
providers learning to support literacy needs through afterschool, tutoring, and
community center services.  This was the
first launch of collaborative activities, demonstrating improved outcomes for
individual learners and families. 

During the first half of 2026, the CNE has been working
behind the scenes to build a virtual literacy hub and to identify and build
resources for two physical literacy hubs that will work together with our
libraries. CNE hired coordinator Dr. Heidi Keegan to manage the project with
two College of Education consultants, Amber Hatch Busch and Savannah Butler,
and began its work with expert partners to plan the activities that will begin
in July 2026. 

Coming up, the Alachua County Reads (ACR) collaborative will
launch the virtual and physical literacy hubs, begin training ACPS teachers across
four initial public schools with School Improvement (SI) designation, and
continue expanding intervention services in the community.  In 2027, Phase Two will include work in early
learning centers to expand school readiness, work with additional public
schools, and recruit more community partners to offer literacy support and
skill-building services.  Across these
activities, the Community Advisory Council will help guide the work, gather
support for the project, and spread awareness to families.  

Visit our website beginning August 1 www.alachuacountyreads.org