Organizer says July literacy summit drew 400 RSVPs and plans hub-and-spoke county effort

Pastor Clarence Crawford summarized the literacy summit held July 17 at Suitland High School, reporting about 400 RSVPs, a waiting list and a roster of sponsors and partners. He said the summit included a keynote by Delegate Martinez, a video welcome from the governor and multiple workshops on family engagement, advocacy and building a literacy ecosystem.

"We had a 400 people RSVP. We had about another 50 on the wait list," Pastor Crawford said, and described a phased hub-and-spoke approach to stand up guidance, policy and coordination functions and then roll out family engagement and district chapters over 2026–27.

Crawford told commissioners the summit yielded concrete results including collection and delivery of 569 donated books to the library system and discussions with the Maryland Book Bank about a Prince George’s County location to provide low-cost books to teachers and families.