Robin Griffin Built A to Z Learning Club to Grow Young Readers

Speaker 2 (00:00)

Welcome to You Matter Nashville, where we celebrate the people and stories that make our community so special. We believe that everyone has a story to tell, and more importantly, everyone here matters. We're your hosts, Jason and Mindy Hoover, and we're passionate about shining a light on individuals who are making a real impact right here in Middle Tennessee. This is about community, connection,

and the incredible people who are making a difference. Let's dive in as we uncover powerful stories and meet remarkable people whose journeys will inspire us all, right here on You Matter Nashville.

Hey friends, welcome back to You Matter Nashville. I'm your host, Jason Hoover, along with my beautiful wife, Mindy. And today we are spotlighting a Nashville nonprofit that is using books to build confidence and community. Our special guest today is Robin Griffin. She is the executive director of A to Z Learning Club, which is a nonprofit empowering children and their families through storytelling, representation, and joyful hands-on learning. Welcome to the show, Robin.

Speaker 1 (01:04)

Hey you guys, thank you for having me.

Speaker 2 (01:06)

Absolutely. So I've got a little bit here I want to share with our audience that tells a little bit about you and the nonprofit. It here, Robin, that you founded A to Z Learning Club back in 2020, and you were inspired by your twin boys, Aziz and Zion. And initially you were sharing books that uplift and empower black boys. And in March of 2023, the effort became a 501c3

partnering with the Nashville Public Library and expanding into family workshops, tutoring, and free diverse book access. Robin's own journey navigating school with an IEP and becoming a two-time HBCU graduate, wow, fuels her passion to help kids build confidence and see themselves in the stories they read.

Speaker 1 (01:59)

I like that.

Speaker 2 (02:00)

I'm impressed already. my goodness. ⁓ I I love all of this. And I you said and talked about your love of storytelling and your sons. ⁓ That's what sparked your A to Z learning club. What or when was the moment when you knew this need to be kind of like a nonprofit serving families at Skilled?

Speaker 1 (02:24)

Yeah, thanks for asking that because so what happened was I like I said, like Jason said and shared that I had an IEP. Somebody like me who had an ⁓ IEP is the Individual Education Plan. Those are things that a lot of times you can get for certain things in education. I got mine in speech therapy. I took speech therapy as a kid. I was in speech therapy from like I was three years old all the way to like fifth grade, I think. I have to ask my mom.

But I think it was fifth grade ⁓ and I had a struggle in reading and people don't know that sometimes your speech can impact the way you read. Yes. of that is just dialect of being in the household. And so me being in from the Midwest and my parents were from the South is just, know, the Midwest was like, you're not saying those words right. it's just because my parents are from the South. So that's just all it is. no, with that I...

Speaker 2 (03:13)

I'm ⁓

Now I'm going to be afraid she's judging how I speak with my southern accent.

Speaker 1 (03:26)

So with that IEP in my second grade, I had a very hard time with breathing around that time. And so look, when we look forward to like, I mean, come to 2023 and I was in graduate school and I was doing a lot of research, I thought about myself and I thought about my children and how, yes, I had an IEP, but I was able to go to college, graduate, go back to school, get my masters. And then right now I have children that were like, I think in that, around that time, they were like the first grade.

I was like, I want to impact other families that have similar stories to me and tell them that you could build confidence, but we can build confidence through literacy. And I think that's very important to engage our children when it comes to literature.

Speaker 2 (04:10)

I love that. mean, on the top everything else off, if a child gets behind in their reading skills, it literally affects every single subject. So it's so important to get them when they're young to fill them with that confidence and keep getting them reading above their level or at their level just so they can be fluent in science and history and everything else.

Speaker 1 (04:33)

Yeah, it's all about self-esteem. Sometimes when kids struggle in school, it actually impacts their social skills. They sometimes have a struggle with gaining friendships and maintaining friendships or even be able to talk in class because they feel like, I don't know how to read. I don't know how to pronounce things. People are going to laugh at me. And my program is to build confidence altogether. ⁓ And that is through either storytelling, the literature that you choose to read.

and building confidence in engagements with families. So like having the whole family engage with each other.

Speaker 2 (05:08)

So in 2020, we were going through a little moment back then, right? Can you imagine it's been five years? It's been half a decade. Isn't that crazy? But so during this time, can you take us back to, know, what were you thinking? And then at some point you're like, you know what? More people need help. I'm going to do that. Can you take us back to that moment?

Speaker 1 (05:14)

I love you,

Yeah.

So in 2020, it was just one thing. It was just a little hashtag, ADZ Learning Club. And it was so cute because it was the twins and their name was Aziz and Zion. And I don't even know where I got, this was before chat GPT. So I didn't use any AI to figure this out. I didn't use no AI for building confidence through literacy. Sometimes I wish I did, but that was just all me.

Speaker 2 (05:58)

Hey, and I want to, I want to point out A to Z for those that didn't catch on. It's the first initial of your voice.

Speaker 1 (06:05)

Yes. Their name is Aziz and Zion. And that's actually so funny is the A is actually the first twin. So A to Z is really like, ⁓ yeah. So that's a fun fact about the twins, but, and I did that on purpose, but yeah. So I was, it was just a little hashtag that I was posting them pictures of twins. And during this time I was teaching them on sight words. was teaching them, we were reading books together. I was teaching them on how to do a little, we were at home all the time. I mean, was the So we were.

Speaker 2 (06:14)

Wow. Okay.

Speaker 1 (06:35)

sit down, I had like little things that friends and family gave me where I could help them put words together. And honestly, this was helping them out a lot because they were starting kindergarten. And so they were already able to do a lot of things that a lot of kids were not able. As we know, right now, is so many kids are behind in reading, which makes them behind in math, which makes them behind in science.

Um, and so I was just doing my job as a parent, cause we all know that education starts at home first. Um, that I was just doing my job as a parent. Now, when we fast forward to 2023, had long gone, stopped doing ADC learning club to be honest. I was focusing in, um, in grad school, being a parent, as you know, it's hard to balance. Parenthood with work, with school, with everything, but I was literally just.

I wasn't even thinking about ADC Learning Club at that very moment. But something sparked to me when I was doing a little research about North Nashville and what was going on in my community. And I was seeing that it was like the highest in mass incarceration, zip code 37208. so then I researching on the school to prison pipeline and how kids, how black and brown kids were getting suspended more and more. And then it all came from, they were saying literacy.

And so it just sparked in my mind, like, well, let's bring back ADC Learning Club. And our whole point is to build confidence because a lot of times they were saying kids were getting suspended was because of self-esteem issues or it wasn't because the child is bad. It's because of certain other things that was going on in the classroom. And I try to tell parents as up here right now, and sometimes I engage with other friends of mine when they child is having issues in the classroom. always ask them, your child understand what's going on in the classroom?

And I'm not talking about what's going on between them and the teacher. Do they understand they work? Right. They don't understand they work is might be the reason why they act up in class.

Speaker 2 (08:33)

Yeah, mean, very true. Yeah, it's very true. don't know if Jason shared, I was in the classroom about 15 years and in high school level, but I also did, I think what, elementary for four years, three years of that. But it's very frustrating for everyone. A lot of times education is not a priority for some families, whether it is for others, but one of the biggest factors that you see though, you hit it on the head, is when a kid doesn't feel

Like they can do it. They're going to get mad and they're going to, and they're going to show out because they're going to act like they're cool and this don't bother me. And they're going to get in trouble. But the kids who are studious, they, and they are plugged in and they know what's going on. They, know, it's, it's a totally different kid. And, ⁓ I know we're the city that we live here, here in Franklin, Franklin special district is such a really, really great job at, ⁓ they have, ⁓ reading buddies.

that come in voluntarily, like grandparents that come in and pulled some of the kids out that are having a hard time learning how to read. And they just read with them in the hallway. I mean, it's something as simple as that. And I love that. And I love that you're taking the initiative for your community and going, we need to do something. We need to implement something here. And I know some of the best memories growing up is, ⁓ before going to bed and my mom reading a book with me and

So guess what I'd do with my kids? Go pick out a book. It's time for bed. And then go pick out one or two or five books. You know, they try to like, but the arsenal tried, how long can they keep you in there? But how long they don't have to go to bed. That's right. Yeah. But you know what? It's that special bonding time and that can be a generational thing. And so, and I love how you are really bringing the family in.

Because if you can instill that with the family, this is family time. This is a time for you to do this together. And it's nothing but positive outcome, right?

Speaker 1 (10:40)

And what I want to say is we don't necessarily have to be choosy when it comes to the literature we read, right? Of course, it would matter what type of books it does matter sometimes, not sometimes, but a lot of times it does matter that you read stories that are people that look like you or stories that are similar to your background and your environment. Of course, my kids right now do not read a lot of the books that I've been putting on my wishlist because they are into anime. So they read a lot.

Speaker 2 (11:09)

So is ours.

Speaker 1 (11:11)

when anime books and I just keep buying them because that's what matters. I just want to keep them interested. I don't necessarily try to be choosy. you can't read this book. No, I just want you to read. ⁓

Speaker 2 (11:17)

That's right.

All right. I want to just take a moment and go back to that ⁓ statistic that you shared about North Nashville being ⁓ the highest, not one of the highest, the highest incarceration rates in the country. And if you would ask me where that was, I would never have guessed Nashville. ⁓ But I love the fact that the core

of that reasoning or that reason, the core issue there is what you're trying to help with. It's not, they go to jail, let's try to educate them, which we should in reform, but it's like, let's stop this before it actually happens. And let's fix the issue at its core. And so I applaud you, Robin, for doing that. Thank you.

Speaker 1 (12:20)

People have to, education is one of the biggest ways to build economic growth. It probably is the, right? It probably is the, but that's something that I'd like to talk about my own story. I am somebody who have two parents that I feel like are very resilient in their own stories. My mom had got pregnant in high school, had my sister, went to college and met my dad and ⁓

gave birth to me. the most other interesting story is my dad actually is someone who went to college and in college went to jail. My dad went to jail in college and got out of college and went back to school. And I tell people all the time, we have obstacles in life. Like stuff happens, things, bad decisions, choices that you make when you're very young, that does not have to impact you for the rest of your life. And that's what I learned from him.

Speaker 2 (13:17)

That's right.

yeah, it doesn't have to define you for sure.

Speaker 1 (13:21)

It does not have to define you. And I always say like my parents story has helped me to always pull myself from my boots and just keep it moving. And I like to say that all the time. And I know that education is one of the reasons why I have both my parents were able to be successful, but they were also able to make sure that I was successful. I am not a first generation college student when I went to college, both my parents went to college. Now they didn't get their master's degree, so I did beat them on that.

Speaker 2 (13:49)

You're like, you know, just saying but

Speaker 1 (13:55)

But I'm very proud to say that both my college my parents with us and they both they both are very very my I grew up with books. My mom always took me to the library and my dad always was reading to me. They were always magazines and that's something that I like to say is like it does not matter what type of literature because you don't want your kids reading something totally bad. But but

Speaker 2 (14:19)

You

Speaker 1 (14:21)

You can pick up magazines. I miss when Teen Vogue in 17 was such a big thing when I was a preteen, because I feel like right now that's like a something that pre like preteen and teenagers don't have, but those were magazines that I always picked up and that was my love of reading. was somebody who always wanted to pick up a book. Didn't matter what it is, a cereal box. You know, I always tell the twins like, I don't care what you read. You can read something on the cereal box because we can read a game. Yeah. Pick up a game and see what they read about the game and see what the game is about. So.

I always encourage families to pick up literature. Always buy it.

Speaker 2 (14:54)

Our

kids loved reading and still do. Yeah, they were also very competitive. when you got into AR, know, and... Sydney was more competitive. Colin just wanted to, because he's more, he's boy. He's just boy. And he's like, all right, I did my minimum, you know? And I'm like, hey, you want to read this book? He's like, maybe next quarter when my AR starts over. I'm like, no!

He's a strategist. yeah. Sydney, Sydney wanted to be on that top 100. Like they if you had so many points was like their hundred board at her elementary. And she had to read 100 books, like chapter books in her fourth grade year. she did. mean, she was she read like 101, like barely, but she's like, ⁓ I'm hitting that goal. And so yeah, my kids were more goal oriented. But then, but actually, my son and I are reading Harry Potter through

together right now, which is fun. I love it. Because he could never get past Prisoner of Azkaban. So I'm like, we're doing it. We're going to start over and you're going to get past that book and we're going to finish it. And they've seen the movies like 30 times. No, it's probably around a hundred times each. Let's be honest.

Speaker 1 (16:08)

I'm so happy I do it because I just told somebody I wanted to pick up Harry Potter and like read the book because I wasn't a child that was into Harry Potter as a kid. ⁓ And I did see the movies but I'm like, I you know, because I worked at the movie theater when the last Harry Potter really, and I remember how people came into the movie theater and how he was dressed up. ⁓

Speaker 2 (16:24)

really?

excited.

the first two, it's more like the movie. And then after that, the books keep growing. And so they just can't fit that all into ours. So you're like, okay, then you're like the book three, you're like, wow, there's a lot of stuff. And you feel like you're part of a secret club. But it's like how it is with most books. You see the movie, and then you read the book and you're like, that's not how it went. That's not how

And we're ⁓

Speaker 1 (17:01)

I actually got a funny story. I was reading 50 Shades of Grey in college and my mom was like, why are you reading? ⁓

Speaker 2 (17:07)

⁓

You know, it's literature. It's literature.

on. ⁓ So the point is just getting people to read just to be fluent and to build up that confidence. So they want to keep reading, you know, so even if it's Harry Potter. Absolutely. I'll take it. So I want to hear about some of the, the programs. ⁓ you have, ⁓ I believe it's a, it's the book explorers club. ⁓ is that correct? Okay.

Speaker 1 (17:45)

Yes, it's A to Z book explorers. And the book explorers is basically our book club. And it's necessary not like a book club. It's a book club where we meet at times. But right now what we've been focusing is just getting books to family. Nice. So we we do choose a lot of books that's been and I do do books that are like culturally representing youth. And so like right now I have children that I have a I have a

student that's in our book club that speak Vietnamese. That was the other language. And so I've been finding books for them. I have another child, forgot it's some thing is like Ethiopia or something. I cannot remember the actual language they speak, but I actually had to search those books. And I have a few kids that speak Spanish. We have those books. We of course have English. We have some families. I always put in my survey, does your child speak a different language?

if they do, then I try to find them a in English and in the language that is spoken at home. I mean, I only speak Spanish, but I mean, speak English, I wish I could speak Spanish, but I only speak English. But if I did speak a different language in my household, I would want my children to speak to learn those books as well. That's just something.

Speaker 2 (18:56)

And it just gives them those tools. And ⁓ for books that connect culturally, it is important. It's because it helps that child connect with the book, which is a domino effect. And so I'm glad that you're doing that.

Speaker 1 (19:15)

Yes. So we kind of still still stole this out. I did a little bit of Darlie Parton. Now she's seen books. Me too. I'm not a Dolly Parton.

Speaker 2 (19:24)

That's right. If we could have a queen in Tennessee. ⁓

Speaker 1 (19:31)

She would be, but she has this thing called imagination. She sent out from like a baby to like kindergarten. until your child enters kindergarten, she sent books out. It's kind of similar to what I do. Except I sent books from pre-K all the way to high school. We were stopping at eighth grade, but I realized I started having families put their high schoolers in my, A to Z book explorers. And I'm like, well, I want all the kids, everybody to read. So I'm going to make sure I get books for everybody.

So we're doing from pre-K all the way to high school where I send out books every quarter. you want my, you, families are only getting one to two books. ain't, we don't got Dolly Parton money. And one day we will, we can fit out more books. But we send out one to two books and the books are culturally representing them. I have them do a survey. ask them what type of books do they like? I also am looking at basically, I'm trying to look at the quarter, like what holidays is around that time, what's going on. ⁓

Because the funny thing about the calendar, it's a day for anything. Like, did y'all know it's National Literacy Month right now in September? I found that out too. I found that out too, so don't feel bad. And so we're just trying to make sure we get books in hand. I also have a program called Imagination Station Library. And that idea came from the Magic School Bus. am a magic school.

Speaker 2 (20:38)

I did not know.

⁓

the magic school bus.

Speaker 1 (20:59)

And so when I created that logo, I told my designer, hey, you remember the Magic School Bus logo? I kind of wanted to look similar to that. And so I love how they used to go on adventures and use their imagination to learn something. And that's where Imagination Station School come from, where we use storytelling and your creative expression to help you build literacy skills. And so with that, we were able to create a book by the name of Heroes of Nashville.

And we created that book with some students in North Nashville in 2024. And the kids developed this. They, ⁓ they wrote the story. They came up the story. They came up with the characters. They came up with the characters name. ⁓ and I took all their ideas and I turned it into a book and I published it and it's called heroes of Nashville. And so that's, yeah, that's from our program imagination. So our plan is to keep growing and building other things by using kids imagination.

and their own stories and building their literacy skills in that way. I love that. That's more of our literacy arts program that we are developing more and more. And then our last program is A to Z family. A to Z family is like workshops and like community events that we do with the entire family where your whole family get to come and we do little things that had like a little bit of literacy, it's more of just keeping you engaged. And so we might.

We were offering different classes like ESL and adult education, but now we're more focusing on just bringing the parents, the families together with their children or their students, and we just do a whole activity together.

Speaker 2 (22:41)

How often do you do that?

Speaker 1 (22:44)

We have our next event in October. So our goal is to always do event every quarter. Once a quarter is our goal is to do event. Once a quarter is our goal is to do our book, giving out our books. And then our next goal is by next year, we want to produce another book for what's our with our students or I've been thinking about doing blogging because every kid I meet wants to be a sneak a sneak a social

Speaker 2 (23:11)

Are star?

Speaker 1 (23:12)

Yeah, and streamer. That's what I want to say. But I'm like, that's not the word streamer. And so many even my kids like, oh, can I have a YouTube channel? I'm like, you want to want to like you want to blog? That's what you want.

Speaker 2 (23:15)

I'm a flancer.

No, I love that. That gives them an immediate platform, you know.

Speaker 1 (23:35)

Yeah, I want to teach kids more about digital literacy. And that's like my next goal is to teach more about their digital literacy and media literacy, because I feel like they spend just as much as adults spend their time online. Our children are as well. And they need to learn what they're doing. They need to know about it and how it impacts them as well.

Speaker 2 (23:58)

zombies. Right.

And sharing how to share their own voices. And I know when our, when our daughter was in fourth grade, she was a part of a, ⁓ a group that got pulled out and it was for creative writing. And she still has the book that her and her friends wrote and they laminated it's in her little memory book, but they were so proud of that.

You know, and it was just like a laminated book that was stapled, you know, but that was such a big deal. They wrote the story. They took the photos with it. They had to go to the library, check out a camera and go and take photos and everything to put on it. it was, ⁓ big. It was, it was super cute. And they had those memories. They pulled them out senior year and, ⁓ just so they could laugh at what they, cause it was of themselves. took pictures.

of them acting out the book and everything. So it was hilarious. It was fourth grade. Miss Carlisle. It was so good.

Speaker 1 (24:56)

Yeah,

actually have a book from when I was in pre-k my daycare we had got a book made and of course I was in pre-k so I didn't actually write it but it was like a story about me going to the zoo and they used my childhood nickname in the book and I still have the book. ⁓

Speaker 2 (25:14)

I

mean, that is a lasting impression. I just love it. But I love the fact that you're using their creativity. I was an arts major, so I just, I don't know. I just love the thought of having them use their thoughts and processes. Well, that, and it just brings more engagement. It's a more lasting impression. And I also love the fact that, like if you have a Hispanic family or a Vietnamese family or a black family, that you are choosing literature that's going to be reflective of them.

Because I mean, just knowing, ⁓ there's this amazing author and they're like me and they're writing about people just like me. There's that automatic connection that comes with that. And excitement and excitement. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (25:59)

And that's where I feel like where we building the confidence of who you are. And being proud of yourself. I think that's important. Honestly, it is important. We should always be proud of our background and who we are and where we come from. And it's important for us to show that in our, let our kids see that as well. And so that was my goal with ADZ Learning Club is that.

Speaker 2 (26:22)

So ⁓ I think you said something about your childhood nickname.

Speaker 1 (26:29)

My childhood nickname is Pooh. My mom loves Winnie the Yes, my mom loved Winnie the Pooh. And so I actually have Winnie the Pooh stuff to ⁓

Speaker 2 (26:42)

She

couldn't have called you Winnie.

Speaker 1 (26:46)

No, she called you poo. And so they stopped calling me that once I got to elementary. Only a few of my cousins might call hope so.

Speaker 2 (26:57)

But nobody else. Yeah, because if that were the middle school, somebody be fighting.

Speaker 1 (27:02)

Did you be a man being a

Speaker 2 (27:10)

⁓ and one more thing before we jump off of that, or this topic, ⁓ heroes of Nashville. Can you give us a little snippet? Like that's ⁓ very intriguing, like the heroes of Nashville. What?

Speaker 1 (27:24)

Yeah, of course. So the kids we actually was doing in 2024. I had them basically come up in our first like this was our first programming with a nonprofit. It's a chakra chakra center called AOC. And Miss Caroline was so sweet because this is my first year of running a nonprofit. So of course I'm like, oh my god. And so we took this lesson plan where we wanted to teach the kids on

Speaker 2 (27:44)

Please help, please help.

Speaker 1 (27:52)

Like basically it was like, design your own superhero. What was your own superhero? And so the kids that had to come out with it, with the superheroes, what their superhero would look like, the personality, what they would wear. And so with these kids, we're working with kids that are like in, I'm talking about first through second graders. These are kids that are very young. Imagination is still growing, right? ⁓ And I asked, we asked the kids like, tell us, we put them in groups, tell us about the characters. They came up with three characters. One name was Superfly.

Speaker 2 (27:55)

Ooh, I like that.

Superfly

Speaker 1 (28:23)

Hooper fly. Then we have Antonio Brown, the dark night, Antonio Brown. Don't know where their name came from, but that was the name. And then the other name was Miss Kina. It was so funny because these kids had to come up with what look like, what their uniform was. They described the girls like the girl edges had to be laid. The girls had to look this. And so I took that, what they said.

Speaker 2 (28:46)

Yeah.

Speaker 1 (28:51)

and took it to an illustrator and was like, you have to design them to the best on what they're saying these characters look like. And so what the story is, basically in the story, these heroes are going to save, know, one of the stories is, I can't remember which character, but one of the characters, ⁓ somebody was robbing a bank and the character came and saved the day. Another, Miss Kyn was at the park and the kids was getting bullied and she came to save the kids at the, who was getting bullied. ⁓

Then another person, like I said, was robbing the bank. That was one story. So, and then I took that story and they said like certain things. gave me like little things, little cues of like what they wanted the story to be like. And so I just wrote it. was like, we asked them what the name was Heroes of Nashville. And so I would love to send you guys a copy of it, but I literally have Nashville in the background and these heroes in the And so we just took it and I'm so proud of them. That was our first book.

that we created in 2024. And you can also pick it up. People can pick it up on our website. It's on our website. You can buy it right there.

Speaker 2 (29:57)

Okay, I love that idea. And they got to pick up like a superpower for each one of them.

Speaker 1 (30:03)

Yeah, they don't they came out with the super we did nothing they came out with the superpowers the way they look the story everything and these are first through ⁓ First through third graders actually and these are rising first through third graders These are kids that were entering that grade for the next school. So just those you're their imagination as a kid, which is sometimes I wish that I still had

Speaker 2 (30:24)

So, were they surprised when they saw the illustrations? Was it what they were imagining? Because, okay, because lot times you do that and they go, that's not what I described in my head.

Speaker 1 (30:38)

You know, it was so funny because like, when they said edges laid, I was like, how can we make this as an animation? I had to really think about like, I really want to make sure I'm doing that, like what they said it was. So it was just very, very interesting because one of them kind of looked like the costume of Black Panther. I was like, can't steal Black Panther. Well, he actually got over, we can make it a little similar. But it was just showing like little things that they

watch on TV and what they think of, if they had a hero in their community, what would that hero look like? that's just what I wanted to make that reflux.

Speaker 2 (31:16)

What would be your superpower? superpower? Most definitely would be flying.

Speaker 1 (31:24)

I think my house will be like, I wish I can like go into other rooms, you know, like you like I'd be sitting here and then I'd be talking to you and then I'd wave by them and somewhere else. I don't know what that would be called. Transported. Transported. That's exactly what it is. couldn't think of that.

Speaker 2 (31:34)

Transporting.

⁓ well, you know, ⁓ being an, introvert that I am would, I'd like to be invisible.

Speaker 1 (31:50)

Not too bad though, I actually like that.

Speaker 2 (31:53)

Have

an Invisi-Cloak like in Harry Invisi-Cloak. Okay, I'll take it. I'll take it. So on the book explorers, you shared a little bit about selecting the titles. ⁓ When you're looking, you've got a group of kids. you, and you're searching for those titles, like how does that come about? How do you go out and find these books? And then are you buying them yourself or where do they come from?

Speaker 1 (32:22)

Thanks for asking that. I actually do a little research on these books. Some of these books at first is books that I read as a kid. I went and looked up some of my favorite books as a child and I went and was like, what did I like to read? And then I also started talking to other people, started asking other adults what books that they liked to read. And so sometimes what I do is I actually just search, like type in.

books like for eighth graders and then I might put in like what language it is or if it's do I want an African American book? I type that in and a lot of lists come up and also because I am an avid reader myself. I just go into the public library and look in children's collections and see what books are they offering and the ways that we've been getting our books so far so far has been donations. Okay, we have done donations. I have a wish list on our website.

I also have gotten books from ⁓ the Governor's Early Literacy Foundation. They gave me a whole bunch of tons of books. You just have to put what grades and they only do early literature, ⁓ early literacy. So you got to know that, but they gave me a whole bunch of books. And then the Book Connection, which is another nonprofit in Nashville. I actually went on a website and just typed in my nonprofit and what we do. And they gave me a whole bunch of books. ⁓

Speaker 2 (33:46)

wow, that's awesome.

Speaker 1 (33:48)

And then other things is we also buy books with money that we are able to raise. I've been able to buy my own books that I feel like ⁓ as well. Like right now I'm looking at a lot of fantasy books. There was not a lot of fantasy books with African American culture, ⁓ African American characters when I was younger. That's true. And now that I'm grown, I've been finding so many that I never even knew about. And so like now I've been doing a lot of my

Speaker 2 (34:07)

Damn.

Speaker 1 (34:15)

Things that like stuff that I wanted as a kid that I didn't really get to see. Yeah, I like look for those.

Speaker 2 (34:20)

I mean, I agree. I was telling Jason earlier, just ⁓ all the different Asian authors that are really coming to the forefront now. read like, I like, I've read three books that were written, you know, they're Asian authors. I mean, that are either enemy or kind of feel fantasy. ⁓ But yeah, it's just really, really cool to see a lot more diverse literature that's coming out.

Speaker 1 (34:46)

Yes. It's very, when I first started ADZ Learning Club, was less than 11 % of books had African-American characters. And that was for, I'm talking about 11 % of African-American characters, like 9 % of Asian, 7 % of Hispanic culture, Hispanic characters was in the stories. Now it's going up. It's not, it's still not a lot, but it's going up as much as we get older. And so what I try to do is shout out.

these authors on our social media. Cause if I don't, if I'm not able to find a book myself, I want you to look at these authors because they are bringing these stories to us and we need to read them. And I like to say that all the time. Like it's, it's very important for you to read things about your own culture and background. think it's very important. And I also think it's important to read about other people's cultures. That's I really been trying to push in.

Speaker 2 (35:37)

Yes.

Speaker 1 (35:41)

Even with my kids like anime. I'm like, let's go eat some. You know, let me introduce you to this whole thing. And let's read about who came up with anime. Let's read more about that culture. Right. You can understand it. And I think it's very important right now that we are. One thing I love about America is that we have.

Speaker 2 (36:04)

Everybody's a genius.

Speaker 1 (36:06)

That's

the best thing about living in America is that you get the chance how, you know how they have like in different cities, they got Korea town, China town, you can go to like Hispanic markets and you got like little stores that African American families or African stores is like, I like that. That is like the best thing about living in a bigger city or living in America itself is that you can have.

Speaker 2 (36:28)

And Nashville is literally called the melting pot of the South, which is incredible. I just finished reading a book. I was like homecoming. And it was about a Chinese family that had that were well, did more came here and came to California. But just I was like, I learned so much in that book just about the culture and the generational relationships that were so different than what I'm accustomed to.

But I felt like I learned more in that book than any of the other books that I've read this year, just because I was, yeah, I was completely, I opened to a completely different demographic. So I always try to encourage my own children, you know, by like buying books from different cultures, period, different time periods. I mean, it's, you get educated and entertained at the same time.

Speaker 1 (37:22)

You do. I like that you said that Nashville is a melting pot because I'm from Illinois. And so when I first came to Nashville, I went to HBCU. So I was born into like North Nashville. And as I got older, I was able to go to different cultures. I never knew how big diverse Antioch. Antioch is the home of a lot of different cultures and backgrounds. And you will be so surprised when you go that way. It's not just one type of.

you know, background or environment, whatever you want to say, like one culture is like multiple. And I meet so many people that's from the Antioch area. And I'm like, wow. And when you go that way, you can see when you go into their schools, when you go into their stores, when you walk into their neighborhoods, it's so diverse. And I love that part.

Speaker 2 (38:10)

I moved to Antioch when I moved here and lived there for a few years. ⁓ And well, I was living there when we were dating. like you said, Nolensville, ⁓ fantastic. ⁓ I laughed earlier when you mentioned ramen and talking about anime because that pegs our son. my goodness. He's not even in college and he lives off the ramen.

Speaker 1 (38:18)

Yeah.

Speaker 2 (38:38)

And he loves anime and it's so sweet. ⁓ He comes and visits ⁓ my mom, his grandmother, and we'll go spend time with her and not make her watch anime or maybe. But won't let anything else be on. But it's so sweet that he's engaging and you

doing that. But it was funny when you said Robin, I was like, Oh yeah, I didn't put that together. he's big time into ramen and, you know, doing, and yeah, it's funny. We have to have a rule. have to ask if you want to eat ramen because you're not going to eat ramen at four and then eat dinner at five 30. It's just not happening.

Speaker 1 (39:20)

Did he get to see, it was a huge anime movie called Demons Later that just came

Speaker 2 (39:26)

Yes,

and he was very upset that his sister was out of town because they supposed to go together.

So I'm like, I'll go with you. He's like, you won't understand. I'm like, okay, I won't, but I'll go with you and sit there the whole time.

Speaker 1 (39:41)

That movie was actually very long and the twins actually wanted to go see it and I seen that it was like rated R. So I didn't know, I don't watch anime so I didn't know who could be in it. They didn't talk to their grandma into taking it. So they went to go see it.

Speaker 2 (39:56)

He's like, it's only going to be on for so many days. I'm like, well then let's go. No. Like it's not special if his sister didn't go. I'm like, okay, whatever.

Speaker 1 (40:02)

Yeah,

I tried. I'm be a go though. I'll be in I'm going

Speaker 2 (40:08)

But it's amazing that we're having this surge of Asian culture right now. As matter of fact, Chinatown is going in, in the Antioch area. They're building an intentional Chinatown in Antioch. Yeah. So that's going to be interesting. I didn't know that.

Speaker 1 (40:26)

All right, that is interesting. Okay, I like that. That's gonna be cool.

Speaker 2 (40:30)

I don't know the exact area, but I was like, okay, okay, I'll go over there for that.

Speaker 1 (40:35)

That

shows you also how man was woman. Yes. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (40:39)

You

like walk downtown and it feels like you're in like Chicago or New York now. I'm like, what is this? We've been here 20 years and we're like, this is not the same place.

Speaker 1 (40:46)

But yeah.

I've been here since 2011, so I feel like I'm a local now.

Speaker 2 (40:54)

Oh

yeah. You've already hit that threshold. Yeah. You're here before. It was cool to be here.

Speaker 1 (40:59)

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm kind of like, I'm like the locals like y'all need to leave.

Speaker 2 (41:05)

No, everyone is welcome. We're just joking. I think we're having too much fun. We're having too much fun. It's okay. So I've got a question here. I see that ⁓ the Dollar General Literacy Foundation actually helped you. Can you share some about that and maybe some of the other partners?

Speaker 1 (41:29)

Yes. So our biggest partner right now is Dollar General Literacy Foundation. So when y'all go to Dollar General and y'all shop and they's like, would you like to round up? Please round up.

Speaker 2 (41:40)

Please

round up.

Speaker 1 (41:42)

Please round up, get that little couple cents to dollars, you know. But yes, they are phenomenal. They have been, and they have given a lot of grants to lot of schools in community. But yes, that's one of my, one of our people who have gave us money. And another one is 37208, which is the zip code of North Nashville. It's a community fund in 37208. That was my first grant. They gave me $2,500. That was how I was able to do, launch my book, that Heroes of Nashville. That's how we was able to create that book.

Speaker 2 (41:50)

it.

So call.

Speaker 1 (42:11)

⁓ and then a lot of other grants have been like little small, ⁓ little grants from like four imprint, which is a, they do a lot of printing. They were able to give me a grant and I was able to get some stuff to give out materials. ⁓ but yeah, a lot of our grants have been, our biggest grant is Dollar General. That's been keeping our doors open. 37208, that was our first grant and a little small little grants from different little companies. That's what I've been doing. And I'm fundraising as well.

Speaker 2 (42:22)

It's an online

Okay, how are you fundraise?

Speaker 1 (42:43)

⁓ so on Monday, we actually last Monday that just passed, we just had a fundraiser, a ML rose. ⁓ if you like.

Speaker 2 (42:51)

yes, they have some really good food.

Speaker 1 (42:53)

We did a fundraiser there. We actually have a book drive tomorrow on September the 20th at a local bookstore right in East Nashville. It's a woman-owned bookstore. And the whole goal was to bring more people into our bookstore to know about our bookstore. But also we are accepting gentle-use books. You can also visit our website to buy books from our wish list. Or you can come in the store and like shop directly, which is what I also encourage. And so...

That's kind of how we funders. We always ask some people to just go on our website and donate money that way. We have like a little thing, a donation form where you can fill out. I'm always looking for people to monthly donate. doesn't matter. You can donate $3, $10, $50, $100. We just, we need money to keep our doors open. So of course we would love for people to donate.

Speaker 2 (43:47)

That was lot of silence. I was waiting on you. Cut that. that. I was looking through the community. So on community and volunteers, you guys do have a first literacy mentoring program that's within you guys. Can you talk a little bit about that?

Speaker 1 (44:10)

Yeah, so what we've been doing is we're not a tutoring company. I want to say that because I know we said something about tutoring. We're not a necessary tutoring company. What we have done is that we are offering mentorship where we want people, no matter who, we host in like little book clubs, little book clubs in different communities where we want volunteers to come and they do a little mentorship where they sit and they run the book club themselves. And that's where you do the mentorship.

Speaker 2 (44:40)

Okay, so what's that time commitment look like?

Speaker 1 (44:43)

That time commembers would be like an hour on a Saturday. We actually have a program coming up. We're working with some seventh through 12th graders. I'm partnering with up with two other nonprofits and for two hours of the day, we're going to be working from with seven to 12th grader boys. And we'll be doing like some little literacy things. I've been laughing because I'm like, yeah, they it's me and another girl, but I'm looking for boys to be some men in there because I'm like us women, they're not going to be trying to learn nothing.

Speaker 2 (45:12)

Use that teacher voice. Use that teacher voice. you you're so right though to have that male presence though with the boys just speaks volumes. It's just like, you know, the known adage of, know, you can say everything 10 times and then dad says you listen to your mom and then they do it, you know? And so just having, Hey everybody listening, we need more guy volunteers to go read.

Speaker 1 (45:18)

It's on a tab! ⁓

Yes,

I'm always looking for more male volunteers.

Speaker 2 (45:42)

Yes, I get it.

So ⁓ with Dollar General helping and ⁓ the others, you said 37208?

Speaker 1 (45:55)

37208. That's the info we were just talking about. Yeah, 37208.

Speaker 2 (45:58)

So ⁓ if a business ⁓ is listening and they want to ⁓ help, what would you say? What do they need to know? Best ways to help.

Speaker 1 (46:11)

Best way is to stay Sorry, y'all, my little ring light keep going off. ⁓

Speaker 2 (46:15)

That works.

Speaker 1 (46:18)

So what I would suggest is they can reach out to us on my website or they can reach out to me via email. My email is robin, R-O-B-I-N, at A to Z learning club dot org. They can send me email. We can set up a meeting and we can talk. I love to make it personal so I don't want you to feel like you just giving me money. ⁓ But make it personal and they can get to meet some of our staff and what we do.

That's the best way on how they can donate. Also, they could, like I said, they can go on our website and be able to donate money on that.

Speaker 2 (46:51)

And I just want to say your website's really cute. It is.

Speaker 1 (46:55)

Thank you. Sign up to Jason, which is we're on a call with Jason.

Speaker 2 (47:00)

Thank you. Thank you. No, they did a good job. A lot of nonprofits, they have a of a struggle bus when it comes to their website. Yours is very user friendly. It looks great. And you got to go and look at her very cute boys. One of them looks like a stinker. In that picture at least. They're twin boys.

Speaker 1 (47:19)

me. They use it. use

it. I went to a and the teacher was like, you know, I don't know if they start, you know, being in each other's classroom yet. I can't figure it out. I say you probably would never know.

Speaker 2 (47:39)

So they keep you busy, but I know with all your busyness, I mean, I know you're wanting to just keep doing more and more. What is your next goals like for the next year? Like, are there new areas you're wanting to kind of like get into or new programs you are wanting to expand on?

Speaker 1 (47:58)

It is the learning club. would love to go back to my home city of Champaign, Illinois and do some work out there. Some community outreach out there. I'm also looking to explore into ⁓ the other counties around Nashville. I'm looking into going to Clarksville and see what we can do there. I'm also looking into like other little small towns we can do around Nashville. I would love to work with that. My goal personal myself is to get more into getting parents to understand. I'm very into

parent education and how we parent because I feel like that's very important as well. ⁓ And also I'm looking into, I'm a writer. I think I told Jason I do a lot of blogging. ⁓ And so I am actually been blogging, you can find me on Substack, my baby mother on Substack and I do a lot of blogging about not just parenting but just about lifestyle, personal things, public health is something I'm very, very passionate about.

I'm passionate about public health and education.

Speaker 2 (49:00)

So I was looking up your blog. So you said my baby mother.

Speaker 1 (49:06)

My baby mother. So M-U-V-A. So B-M-Y-B-A-B-Y-M-U-V-A. But you should be able to look it up by Robin Griffin.

Speaker 2 (49:18)

Well, yeah, so that's what came up. So it's the same one. It's robingriffin.substack.com. That's what came up. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (49:26)

See my pizza?

My last blog was called Lost Without a F***. Okay, then you found me. Okay.

Speaker 2 (49:36)

Yeah, I see that.

So we'll definitely put that up as well for people to check out. I was perusing through the other website and I see you have a statistic here, very, very impacting. It says 83 % of children in low income families have reading skills below the proficiency mark.

Speaker 1 (50:05)

Yeah.

Speaker 2 (50:06)

That's just telling. That's what I think continues the poverty.

Speaker 1 (50:14)

It's

a cycle. Also, I'm learning too, if you have more books, not even just books, you don't have to pick them up to read. But if you have more access to the books, you will possibly pick the books up, which is why A to Z Book Explorers. Sometimes people are like, how you know the kids reading it? I don't know. I don't know if they read it. But if they have more access to the book, maybe they will read it. Who knows? And so that's the goal is to put more books in homes of low income families.

Speaker 2 (50:17)

Right.

Speaker 1 (50:41)

so they can see it, because maybe they will pick it up. Right now we have a barbershop initiative called Fresh Pages. We still thinking of the name, y'all. So that's why I don't know today. But we have this barbershop initiative where I'm putting books into barbershops. And we got one barbershop we already working with called Get Chopped in Bordeaux, part of Nashville. You guys are filming your book, Bordeaux. And when I went and talked to the owner, he was like, yeah, they already picking up the books.

Speaker 2 (50:58)

That's really neat.

Yeah. ⁓

Speaker 1 (51:12)

And

this is me having a little bucket of different books and in these books, they all have to do with hair. Okay. Everything is about hair. So I have a book called Love Hair. It's another book about BJ and the barbershop battle. ⁓ Crown, which is about an African American boy going to the barbershop and getting a haircut. ⁓ The goal is just to get the books in spaces. That's all I'm really trying to do. I feel like if I put them in spaces and they see themselves in these stores, they would pick the book.

Speaker 2 (51:41)

There's ⁓ barbershop in downtown Franklin. Yeah, going there tomorrow with Cohen. Yeah, I will. I'll look up the name and send that ⁓ to you. back to ⁓ growing up with IEP, ⁓ what would you say or what would you tell a parent that has a child that just absolutely does not like to read?

Speaker 1 (51:46)

Yeah, well let me know.

Speaker 2 (52:11)

or maybe refuses and maybe they're a little worried or how could you know, do you have any advice for that parent?

Speaker 1 (52:19)

Yes. And I'm so sorry, you guys. I don't know what's going on my ring light right now. I keep turning on and keep going off. So I'm like, maybe it doesn't want to be on the more. But anyway, what I would say is as somebody who had IEP is to be patient. Give yourself grace as a parent. I think sometimes we are so hard on ourselves when our child doesn't get it. We feel like it's our fault. And I want to tell those parents, it's not your fault. Just give yourself grace. It's nothing wrong.

Speaker 2 (52:23)

No worries.

Speaker 1 (52:47)

Life is a marathon. It is not a race. And so what I would tell those parents, that child is to understand the child. Find out what is your child passionate about? Find out what is your child struggles with? Is it necessary reading? Is it necessary they don't understand the comprehension of the book or the stories that they're reading? And you have to spend time with your child. think a lot of times as parent, we think we are sometimes, we not necessarily are sitting in the room.

Sometimes I just sit in the room with the twins while they play the game and asking questions about the game that they play and what's going on in school. And I think that's how I would do it, approach it. As somebody who had an IEP, my parents never, never gave up on me. I actually had an IEP from kindergarten all the way to 12th grade. And the fun fact, if you have an IEP and you're going to law school or medical school, you get extra time on your test. ⁓

Speaker 2 (53:32)

Fantastic.

I didn't know that extended.

Speaker 1 (53:47)

I

didn't either until I was looking into going to law school and the guy that I was who was tutoring me was like, oh you at IEP if you get your transcript you got to go back to your high school.

Speaker 2 (53:55)

and show the paperwork.

Speaker 1 (54:03)

Yeah, and you're having an IEP does not mean you don't know what's going on. It doesn't mean you're not smart. Doesn't mean anything. And so like, that's something I would like to share. But yeah, as a parent, I think you should give yourself grace as a parent, first thing first, but then also dive deep into what your child is going through and figure it out. I have a personal story. My son Aziz, I have a literacy program and he did not do good on a T cap. We

did tutoring the whole year, third grade. It was time to take the TCAP. He did not do well. The TCAP is so weird because it says he's approaching, whatever that means. And I had to put him in summer school. We put him in summer school. My baby was having a hard time. He was like, oh, I'm dumb. He's like, you're not dumb because you went to summer school. Oh, why I got so upset that he had to do summer school while his brother got to go to the community center and go to summer, know, summer stuff.

while he is in summer school and that I can see how that was tear my son up. And he didn't pass again. And as a parent, I'm over here stuck because I don't know what's going on. It's tearing me apart as a parent and he has an A in reading right now.

Speaker 2 (55:11)

Probably tear it.

Fantastic. But you know why? you know the statistics that kids can learn to read anywhere between ages four and like eight and a half, nine. So some kids that just developmentally, it just doesn't click until they are eight or nine years old. And then they just run off with it. But we have this stigma. You have to learn how to read by the end of first grade. But some people just

It's just their genetics. It's just how everything's lined up for them. And they just don't learn until second or third grade. And that's okay. And I think we to make parents more educated on that, that all of our kids' brains develop differently and it's not their fault or your fault. I had a hard time learning how to read myself. then all my friends learned how in kindergarten, first grade, and then I had really hard time. But right at the end of first grade, second grade, I just took off. I felt dumb.

For those first, the first year and a half when everybody else was smarter than me and you feel that. You so feel that. ⁓

Speaker 1 (56:19)

Yeah.

And it puts you down. Yeah. I'm thinking that right now might just not do well in testing. Yeah. I didn't do good in testing. I hate testing. Assessments were not my thing. And right now ⁓ as the family, as his community, his village, we're over here like, okay, maybe it's just he's not doing well in texting. And so we like, okay, what can we do to help him? Do you have anxiety when you take tests? Yeah. Do he works through it? Do he understand? Can he comprehend the passion? Like he can read it.

People have to understand one thing is reading. Can you comprehend? And so we're working with him as well. But I am a parent that's going through similar stuff that other parents. Yes, I have a literacy nonprofit. Yes, I talk about literature and reading all that. I have a son that could be going through the same thing that a lot of kids are going through right now. And I understand. I was just calling this. I just called a school the other day was like, when do tutoring start? Because I don't want, know, it looks funny for one one twin to be in the fourth grade and the other one in the fifth.

Speaker 2 (56:52)

Yeah.

Right. mean, that would be hurtful for them. I mean, but you do what you got to do. But thank you so much for sharing because a lot of parents out there feel that way. Well, and, you know, for me, I didn't have a problem learning to read, but I just did not like reading. it was not until it was not until after school, after high school, I graduated my

brother actually gave me a book. And it was the first book ever that I read because I enjoyed it. And I still remember it. It was How to Win Friends and Influence People. well, it's a self-help book. And it connected with me. Going back in school, it was all about these different... ⁓

fictional type books. And then you had the Shakespeare, you had all these different things and none of them connected with me. So I did not enjoy it. But when I read that book, I almost read the whole thing within like two days. And since then, that's all I read. It's self help. And I will dive into it. I you look at my shelf of books. mean,

Not the same as my shelf. Yeah, you can totally, totally tell the difference whose books they I shared that. I shared that. You know, maybe, you know, if you're having some problems, maybe they haven't found one that connected with them. It's so true. you know, I, you know, getting over that picture book to chapter books, that's a huge hurdle too for kids to do that around third, fourth grade, fifth grade.

Speaker 1 (58:46)

these but

Speaker 2 (59:07)

And people always think it's funny that my first chapter book was a Stephen King, but he wrote a series of juvenile books in like the late 80s. And I picked him up at a scholastic book fair. And I'm like, I didn't even know who Stephen King was. I was just reading the backs. I'm like, it was of course fantasy. He wrote a fantasy as a little series. And so I'm like, oh my goodness. And I got it. And I actually bought a first edition about five, 10 years ago of that book. Just so I was like, I have that book.

You know, that's the first book that I really grabbed me. And I've read quite a few Stephen King since then, but I love reading everything. That explains a lot. Yeah. Right. Your first book was Self Help and mine was Stephen King.

Speaker 1 (59:51)

That's so crazy!

Speaker 2 (59:53)

I'm in my 40s and I still love fantasy books. You know, I still love them. It's my favorite genre I keep going back to.

Speaker 1 (1:00:01)

Ashley was into Captain Underpants. Yes. I was so like a Captain Underpants kid. And Ginny B Jones. yes. It's so sassy. And as a girl, you just love it. Babysitter's Club. Yes, it was a store. They no longer I think now is Justice. But it's a store that used to be limited to. yes. So limited to

was the store that my mom used to shop for me when I got into like older upper elementary. And they had a whole book series. ⁓ And every time my mom would go to buy me some clothes, I would walk out with clothes and a book. And that was like a memory. And I went and looked them up the other day to see. I can't find their books, but I'm probably going to go look on eBay or something. I don't know. But they did have some books. ⁓ And one of my favorite child.

Arthur as a kid was Shann Draper. Yes. Those were the only books that I read a lot. She did a lot of books on African-American characters and that's one of my favorite. But a book that I just read that came out that I did not read when I was younger was Judy Bloom. Judy Bloom was like something was before my time. I would say that. She had, it's a series out on Netflix that I would recommend called Forever. And

⁓ it's, it's follows the story of a young teenager couple and they find love and they, you know, engage into some relations. And, and that was a coming, coming to age story. ⁓ it's based off the book of forever. Judy Bloom was a story. I don't think she came out in like the late sixties, I'm guessing the sixties, seventies. Her books was a lot for like a lot of young adults and they was not prepared for her to be talking about the things that she was talking about in her.

Speaker 2 (1:01:50)

But,

I know.

Speaker 1 (1:01:51)

And I ⁓ picked up forever because I was like, okay, I didn't watch this series on Netflix. Let me see what the actual book. Yeah. And when I read it, I was like, my God, I could imagine this came out in the late sixties. They was not ready.

Speaker 2 (1:02:03)

were

not ready, but know, but the books was there. That's the great thing. Like TV may not be ready, but I think every other thing's on TV now. Now, I know, I know we have talked a lot about our favorite moments and everything, but have there been just some really amazing moments in your community with, you know, A to Z that like in workshops or ⁓ book pickups or anything like that, that system, a really cute story of some aha moments.

Speaker 1 (1:02:32)

Heroes of Nashville was my favorite part to see that. That was our first thing. ⁓ Last school year, we worked at Robert Churchwell Elementary School, which is also, we have done a lot of work in North Nashville. So our plan is to keep working in other communities as well. ⁓ And our second thing was when we did work with Robert Churchwell, we worked with kindergarten all the way to fifth graders.

And then I worked with the third through fifth graders and my mom actually volunteered and she worked with the kindergarten through second graders. And my mom used to be so happy when she would come and see them and how they were so happy to see her. With a third and fifth graders, I learned so much about personality and like how personality shape you ⁓ as little that you are. I think they say about time you in a third, like three years old, you start shaping your personality. I it.

And so working with third through fifth graders, they absolutely was so fun when you were talking to them. Of course they were like, my God, I don't want to read. But once we got into the activities and they learned that we were not just picking up a book and reading and we were doing stuff where I did a lot of journaling with the kids. I did a lot of puppet shows where I would get them like, we were make puppets. I would make them have make their own puppets and then we would do our hand puppets and put on a hand and they would have to come up with their own story and doing a lot of things.

Speaker 2 (1:03:53)

listening.

Speaker 1 (1:03:55)

and I realized how much they imagination got to flow. Those are things that I always would take back with me. I would take over this summer that just passed, we worked with AAOC again, which is the same program that did our heroes in Nashville. And I remember when I was in there and maybe she just wanted some, cause I would give out like little things to the kids. And she, I told her to draw somebody.

her favorite person. she drew me. And every time I would come, how happy they would be. And they'd be like, ooh, what did we get to draw today? And they would be so happy to get their journal. And they would be so happy to write. And I'm like, oh my God, you're making me so happy. So I think my biggest thing right now that I'm learning is just being around outside of my own children. It's just, I love to see how the kids light up to know what we're doing. What are doing today?

Speaker 2 (1:04:26)

Yeah

Speaker 1 (1:04:53)

And I've made sure that we not just sitting down reading books. I always make sure we're doing like a fun activity. So those are things that I realize that I like.

Speaker 2 (1:04:59)

bringing that creativity to the mix. love it. I worry creativity is decreasing because of all of the technology.

Speaker 1 (1:05:09)

I do agree. I do agree.

Speaker 2 (1:05:11)

Well, this has been an absolute joy and I just applaud you for the dedication, the sacrifice that ⁓ you're making to make this happen. you know, I just want to give you a big hug. I mean, I just, love you and I love what you're doing. And ⁓ so before we do wrap up,

Speaker 1 (1:05:35)

No

Speaker 2 (1:05:41)

I just want to be sure that we share about how people get involved. Share the website again, if you would. And what is something that you're really, really needing right now?

Speaker 1 (1:05:58)

Yes. So right now we are, you can follow us on A to Z Learning Club. We have a LinkedIn, we've got a Facebook page, we've got an Instagram page. can type in A to Z Learning Club and you will find us there. You can also find us on our website, a to zlearningclub.org. You can hit us up via email. It's hey, H-E-Y, at a to zlearningclub.org. Or you can hit me up, robin at a to zlearningclub.org.

Right now we're looking for volunteers and we also looking for partners. We always looking for people to partner with us. ⁓ We would love to host a workshop with you. We would love to just come up and have books to give out to kids, whatever you have in just hit us up. ⁓ Our biggest thing is right now is outside of just, of course we would love donations, but we also need volunteers. That's a big thing we looking forward to.

Our next big event that we want to work out is our Harlem Renaissance Arts program. We're looking into doing that in February of 2026. Harlem Renaissance is something I've been researching and studying a lot on, and that's something I want to bring out to our students to learn about the glories of arts and literacy around Harlem Renaissance and what it brought to the African-American and the communities around. So that's something we're working

Speaker 2 (1:07:19)

Neat. It's really neat. Robin, thank you so much. you for taking time out of your schedule to share with us and the listeners. Just thank you for what you're doing. Thank you for your heart. Thank you for the love that you're giving because you are making a change. As we discussed earlier, it starts when they're young. If we can get to them when they're young and get them on the right path,

Speaker 1 (1:07:23)

you are appreciated.

Speaker 2 (1:07:48)

and help them. Something as simple as reading a book. Everybody thinks it takes some big organization. It takes all this effort to change ⁓ the ⁓ incarceration rates. It doesn't. takes ⁓ someone like you. Time. You just say, I can make a difference and I'm going to do it. And that's what you've done, Robin and I. Thank you so much. Thank you. so everybody, ⁓

Please, please, please, if you're at all interested or if you think anybody is interested, please keep keep Robin in mind.

Speaker 1 (1:08:29)

Thank you. Thank you guys for having me on your show. It was so nice to meet you both. ⁓ And I look forward to all the work you guys are doing.

Speaker 2 (1:08:39)

Thank you. And friends, you'll find links to A to Z Learning Club, the Impact Report and their events in the show notes. Jump in, volunteer, donate, share a book, do whatever you can with a kid this week. Thanks for listening everybody. And until next time, as always, remember that you matter. Thank you for joining us on this episode of You Matter Nashville.

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