Educational equity & Family Readiness
About
At EmpowHer Enterprises, we believe that preparing a child for school is about more than backpacks and pencils—it’s about equity, readiness, and restoration. Our Educational Equity & Family Readiness Program is more than a back-to-school event. It's a strategic intervention designed to close opportunity gaps for youth who are often left behind, those navigating foster care, homelessness, and economic hardship.
Through this initiative, families receive access to critical wraparound services—academic tools, life skills training, and personalized resources so that students can show up not just enrolled, but empowered.
This program is deeply connected to our year-round Beyond the Bookshelf Literacy Program, which builds reading confidence and comprehension through engaging book clubs, reading passports, and culturally relevant literature. The momentum created during our back-to-school season rolls directly into sustained literacy support, because true educational equity doesn’t end in August.
We equip each child with:
- A personalized Reading Passport that gamifies learning and tracks progress across genres
- Family sessions focused on learning readiness, bedtime routines, and positive parenting
- Free school supplies
Together, these programs provide a full-circle approach: one that empowers both child and caregiver. Because when families are ready, children rise and when literacy is nurtured, futures change.
From free school supplies to culturally empowering books, this event is designed to spark curiosity, strengthen literacy, and ensure every child starts the year prepared and empowered.
The Issue
Children from underserved communities—especially those impacted by foster care, homelessness, and generational poverty—face deep educational disparities. Many begin the school year without basic supplies, academic support, or stable home routines that are critical for learning. The gaps are not just academic—they’re systemic:
- Literacy crisis: Over 60% of low-income 4th graders in the U.S. read below grade level (NAEP, 2022).
- Readiness gap: Children in poverty often enter school with 30 million fewer words heard than their peers, impacting comprehension and confidence.
- Family instability: Many caregivers lack the resources or knowledge to support learning at home, leading to academic disengagement and increased dropout rates. Shopping for back-to-school essentials is becoming a real struggle for families whose household budgets are stretched to the max by surging inflation.
Without intervention, these youth fall further behind each year—academically, emotionally, and developmentally.
The Facts
According to Morning Consult's annual back-to-school shopping report, just 36% of parents said they would be able to pay for everything their kids need for the 2023-24 school year. That's down sharply from 52% in 2021, when inflation was lower and stimulus checks plus advance child tax credit payments helped some families.
According to estimates from consulting firm Deloitte and the National Retail Federation, parents are expected to spend about $661 to $864 on K-12 school supplies for the 2023-2024 academic year—the highest average cost for supplies since the National Retail Foundation began tracking this metric.
As our new economic landscape takes a bigger bite out of budgets, many households are scrambling to afford these annual purchases for their children, particularly our local African American, Hispanic, and Latino population.
The Solution
EmpowHer Enterprises bridges these gaps with a two-pronged solution:
1. The Educational Equity & Family Readiness Program (Back-to-School Event)
2. The Beyond the Bookshelf Literacy Program (Year-Round Support)
Our strategy is comprehensive and community-rooted:
- We provide families with school supplies, books, hygiene kits, and age-appropriate literacy tools.
- We introduce reading passports that encourage consistent, joyful reading through goal tracking.
- We host family info-sessions that equip caregivers with strategies for building structure, encouraging reading, and supporting mental well-being at home.
- We prioritize representation in literature, ensuring children see themselves in the stories they read.
This combination of immediate support and long-term literacy engagement helps children start strong—and stay strong—all year long.