Expanding Access to Books and Literacy Opportunities for Underserved Youth

The Bridge Alliance Education Fund, the sponsor of The Fulcrum, has also recently launched the Democracy Architects Council. Through this fellowship, changemakers ages 18-28 across the country receive the skills, mentorship, and community needed to turn their ideas into real impact. The story below is one example of what's possible when young people are given the tools and support to lead.

Sahana Srikanth, Founder of Young Learners Foundation

State: Ohio

Age: 17

When Sahana began noticing how many children lacked access to books and literacy resources, she was struck by the scale of the gap. In the United States alone, 32 million children grow up without books in their homes, and many schools and organizations in low-income communities cannot afford to purchase them. Motivated by her lifelong love of reading and belief that literacy should be accessible to everyone, Sahana founded the Young Learners Foundation.

As Founder and Executive Director, Sahana launched a series of book drives to bridge the gap between book-rich and book-scarce communities. Through these efforts, she has organized the donation of more than 18,000 books to youth-serving organizations across 10 U.S. states and three countries, saving families, teachers, and students an estimated $153,000 in educational costs.

Beyond distributing books, Sahana works directly with young people to build confidence in reading and language skills. She has organized free literacy mentorship programs, spelling bees, and vocabulary workshops that have reached more than 150 students, ensuring that literacy development opportunities remain open and accessible to anyone interested.

Through Civics Unplugged, Sahana connected with peers working to address similar challenges in their communities and collaborated to expand opportunities for youth involvement. Because of the CU Fellowship, she joined another CU Fellow’s organization, EcoBrothers, as a Youth Council Member, where she created a guide to help others organize and run successful book drives.

To support this work, Sahana has received competitive grants from organizations including The Hershey Company, the Contribution Project, and the Matt Kurtz Foundation. Her initiatives have benefited schools and youth organizations ranging from local health center literacy programs to Boys & Girls Clubs and international partners such as the African Library Project.

Through the Young Learners Foundation, Sahana continues to channel her passion for reading into action—connecting thousands of young people with books, mentorship, and opportunities to discover the joy and power of reading.

Civics Unplugged provides high school-aged innovators the skills, mentorship, and community needed to create impactful solutions to the problems that matter most. Since our founding in 2019, we’ve graduated more than 5,000 Fellows worldwide from our tuition-free programs and provided $1.5 million in direct funding to Fellows’ initiatives. To learn more about us, please visit civicsunplugged.org.