Gutiérrez asks providers about dream scenario and resources
Gutiérrez thanks the panel and asks what a dream scenario would require. Karen Rogel cites technology for program updates and more multilingual books, noting City's First Readers currently works in Spanish, English, Bengali, and Mandarin.
Thank you all so much.
I have a couple questions.
And thank you all, our friends over at Link, for consistently showing up to these hearings, but also I think just doing the work that you highlighted in your testimony, which is providing joy and making that connection for families.
I think everything about the way that you operate is welcoming and encourages families to speak in their language.
in whatever language they speak at home.
It's just about getting kids excited about reading and speaking.
I know the council funds that City's First Reader, so shout out to the council members before us and certainly Speaker Mann and who continues to support us in funding it.
What is a dream scenario for the providers where you all are doing things, we're all applauding, but you're unfortunately not able to do it unilaterally across the city?
Kind of what is the dream scenario?
What do you need to make that happen?
So much.
But we would like to invest in tech because our website is so very well.
If you go in there and just put your child's age and the community they are from, it gives them programs.
But a lot of the partners do not have the support.
We manually put it in.
Very quickly, just talk about the partners that you're referring to.
So the libraries automatically can't, it gets automatically updated because of the system they have.
And so does Link.
We started using Airtable.
But some of the smaller partners do not have access to that technology.
So the website cannot be updated automatically.
We would have to like put it in.
Another thing would be just more access to books and multi-language books.
We work with four languages now.
But as you know, New York City has one of the most diverse.
What are the languages?
So right now the languages we work with.
It are Spanish, English, Bengali, and Mandarin.
And one of the partners is already working with Arabic and Russian, but there are so many other African languages or other languages that we would like to be able to provide materials and books in, and that alone is also
expensive, the print and the ordering of books.