Start Lighthouse

Start Lighthouse is a literacy nonprofit organization founded during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, during a time of widespread school and library closures. Start Lighthouse fosters lifelong literacy through a two-generational approach. Our work is grounded in our unwavering belief that the biggest barrier to literacy is access to books.

Our racial justice program, Woke Activists, cultivates a safe space for students in grades K-5 to have conversations regarding identity, race, and social justice in a developmentally appropriate and relevant way. Start Lighthouse’s Woke Activists is a culturally relevant program that builds mastery literacy skills through a social justice lens. The objective of this program is to transform our students into activists who stand up against injustice. Start Lighthouse’s Woke Activists features a comprehensive curriculum, facilitator guides, guest speakers, as well as a project that students pursue inspired by their learnings. Our team developed and refined the Woke Activists curriculum to ensure that it meets both national and state standards. Most importantly, our online curriculum is designed to meet the diverse needs of our students.