Kid’s Scoop, says Joel Asselstine of the Neepawa Banner and Press, is a program designed to encourage kids to read print material instead of just doom scrolling on their phones. It’s a one-page newspaper addition which exposes kids to diverse reading materials and encourages them to engage with the rest of the newspaper as well.

 “Children who have [literacy] advocacy at a young age, especially grades three to four, tend to have a civic duty to their community as they reach adulthood, giving back to communities and investing into local economies,” says Asselstine.

Not only are literacy rates in children declining post-Covid, he adds, but we are also seeing a decrease in emotional maturity due to less social interaction. Kid’s Scoop addresses those issues as well, and includes educational resources for both families and teachers.

Asselstine is reaching out to the community to help fund the supplement, which will cost $300 a week to include in the paper on top of what the paper itself is contributing. The statistics he shares regarding literacy rates in the province of Manitoba demonstrate the need for this kind of material for young people.

While the Kid’s Scoop page itself is produced elsewhere and licensed to the paper, the Neepawa Banner and Press encourages contributions from local students on the rest of its pages as well and would be happy to work with them to develop publishable material.

[ Author’s note: the day after this program aired, Kid’s Scoop was fully funded for six months and now appears in the local newspaper. ]

Rrain Prior - Local Journalism Initiative