Together with Friends and Neighbors, Mt. Airy CDC is Helping Build a Literacy Rich Neighborhood.
Two New Playful Learning Installations Are Now Open in Mt. Airy/Germantown
In 2024, Mt. Airy CDC worked with community members to help design, locate, and program new Playful Learning installations for families.
Since 2020, Mt. Airy CDC has been participating in the Literacy Rich Neighborhood Initiative (LRNI), a program supported by a grant from the William Penn Foundation. LRNI helps to advance the goals of the citywide grade-level reading campaign, spearheaded by Read by 4th, to ensure that every child in Philadelphia is reading at, or above, grade level by the end of 3rd grade.
The mission of LRNI is to create multiple neighborhood opportunities for children and caregivers to engage together in meaningful literacy experiences. Based on initial input from the community, the organizing theme for the LRNI is “Neighborhood as Story.”
The first of the three installations is The Nest, a community reading installation that opened summer 2023 on the grounds of Cliveden. In September 2024, two additional installations opened – Seeds & Bees at Wyck and The Hive at Johnson House.
The design of both Seeds & Bees and The Hive is inspired by beehives, which symbolize strength, harmony, and community. Both designs incorporate a variety of playful learning activities that reflect the rich history of their sites and the neighborhood. The installations include Little Free Libraries, multiple seating options, I-Spy elements, story starters, a weather wheel station, word games, an audio story station, and much more. Being outdoors stimulates children’s imaginations and creativity. The natural environments surrounding Seeds & Bees and The Hive, as well as the engaging activities within, contribute to children’s increased curiosity, vocabulary, critical thinking, observational skills, and expanded empathy for others.
In their locations at Wyck and Johnson House, these installations will serve the Germantown/Mt. Airy communities throughout the year, with special support for Mt. Airy CDC’s Summer Reading Camp at Holman Field. The historic sites will also integrate the installations into their community programming. Together with The Nest, Seeds & Bees and The Hive will serve as wonderful local destinations that are safe, joyful, educational, and beautiful.
The Community Reading Nest
We designed and built a literacy installation for children and their caregivers, called “The Nest,” which opened June 2023. Designed and fabricated to serve local families, the Nest will inspire and support meaningful literacy experiences between children, their families, and their caregivers.
In its current location at Cliveden, it is a safe and inviting place to share stories, to read and be read to, to play with words, to write and tell stories, and generally to delight in language.
Our Story
Our free, outdoor reading camp on Holman Field in Germantown (near Historic Johnson House) started out as an idea at another Play Street site in Germantown, where a staff member spent the summer reading books to children every day and noticed a lot of kids were home without the benefit of a summer camp experience—even though there was a city summer camp in walking distance nearby. Block Captain Muriel Brown’s invitation to read to children that summer was the inspiration for our insight to meet children and families where they are by creating our Holman Field Summer Reading Camp—a free, outdoor, walk-in summer reading camp. Our reading camp serves K-3 students and is staffed by retired educators, middle-school/high school peer-mentors, and longtime residents of the neighborhood!
Literacy Rich Neighborhood
In a little corner of historic Germantown, something exciting and promising is brewing, thanks to a small group of committed neighbors, families, organizations: We’re creating our very own Literacy Rich Neighborhood.
We’re part of the citywide grade-level reading campaign spearheaded by Read by 4th. Our ambitious but doable goal? To get every child in Philadelphia reading at or above grade level by the end of 3rd grade.
We’re looking for passionate, literacy-minded folk interested in learning more about our goals and activities, getting involved, and supporting innovative initiatives like Reading Captains, Reading Spaces Everywhere, and a labor of love close to our heart—a little-summer-camp-that-could of sorts—Holman Field Reading Camp, our flagship program, a summer outdoor reading camp and city lunchsite that’s easy-to-walk-to and free.
With funding from William Penn Foundation, we’re transforming public spaces through the lens of playful learning!
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