Line 4 Line

“990 is presented to the board for review and approval at their next scheduled board meeting. Members ask questions, as applicable, and approve its filing.”

“The policy is actively enforced.”

“Governing documents are made available upon request.”

“Line4line's mission is to engage, inspire, and connect youth through free community-based programming that champions creative literacy, book access, and positive mentorship. Line4line began with a simple yet powerful idea: offering free haircuts to young people who read aloud. This innovative approach has since evolved into a comprehensive organization dedicated to fostering youth development in baton rouge. Building on this history, our work today empowers youth by creating robust ecosystems of care that utilize various community spaces (from the barbershop to classrooms) to foster a culture of literacy and provide a continuous continuum of educational support.”

“Line4lines book access programming is designed to address literacy inequity and promote social-emotional learning by providing free, curated books to youth and families throughout the baton rouge community. This programming is centered on the distribution of high-quality, age- appropriate literature specifically selected for its thematic focus on kindness, empathy, and diversity. These books are chosen to serve as both mirrors, allowing young readers to see their own experiences validated, and as windows, offering them perspectives into the lives of others to cultivate understanding and compassion. Key programming activities include the ongoing book of the month initiative, which provides a sustained pipeline of new books directly to partnered elementary school classrooms, educators, and individual youth to build home libraries and encourage habitual reading. Furthermore, this programming encompasses community outreach, which involves collaborative family literacy nights at local schools to engage families in literacy development. Finally, the initiative executes community-based distribution events, strategically placing books directly into the hands of children and families at neighborhood gatherings, festivals, and other accessible local venues to ensure widespread access.”

“Line4line's creative literacy programming is dedicated to cultivating a holistic and positive literacy ecosystem that supplements traditional education by demonstrating the value and joy of literacy skills. Creative literacy activities are designed to complement academic instruction by meeting young people in familiar and supportive settings, including in- school sessions, afterschool programs, out-of-school camps, and community spaces like oneils barber & beauty salon through line4lines signature haircut for reading program. Within these spaces, this programming facilitates engaging activities that strengthen core competencies in reading, writing, vocabulary, and storytelling. The focus is on creative, application-based learning that connects literacy to self-expression, community interaction, and personal interests. By creating consistent and positive touchpoints with literacy in a variety of contexts, the initiative aims to transform a child's perception of reading and writing from a solely academic task into an accessible, communal, and empowering tool. The ultimate goal is to foster intrinsic motivation and position students for greater academic success by nurturing their identity as confident, lifelong learners and engaged members of their community.”

“Line4line's youth mentorship programming provides structured, community- based support systems designed to guide young people toward positive life outcomes. This initiative directly addresses community challenges by creating protective factors for youth, combating disinvestment and violence through consistent mentorship and skill development. The programming connects participants with caring adult role models and provides accessible learning opportunities within trusted neighborhood settings. Key program activities include the barbers as mentors (bam) program, which formally extends the barbershop's role as a community hub by organizing a basketball league (clippers) to foster discipline and positive peer relationships. The reading and beading initiative creates a supportive space for young women and girls to discuss critical topics such as mental health and personal growth. For youth at risk for involvement in violence, the pivot project provides targeted support using evidence-based crisis violence intervention (cvi) and crime violence prevention (cvp) strategies. Finally, barbering education is offered through high school barbering classes at partner schools and a hands-on barber apprentice program, providing practical career exploration and skill development.”

“Book access - a little free library sits outside the barber shop and is regularly stocked with new and used books. To date more than 4,000 books have found new homes across baton rouge. Line4line works with community groups to rehome donated books throughout city, in free little libraries, public housing sites, doctors offices and classrooms. Community lending library - line4lines library of 800+ books, for all reading levels and interests is available to community members to borrow. The collection focuses on diversity, specifically black, indigenous, people of color. An catalog of the collection is accessible on line4lines website and linked to black owned bookstores. Line4line is working with front yard bike to build a mobile bike-mobile, to expand access of books into areas of high need. Backspace - in 2019 line4line renovated a multi-purpose program space within the barbershop complex, home to our lending library and all of our community based programs, including saturday open-house, summer camps, mentoring program, workshops, trainings, community partner collaborations, and more. Life/workforce development - in 2020 line4line expanded its outreach into capitol high school transforming a classroom into a barbering and reading lab. In addition to students learning the art and business of barbering, the program offers one-on-one reading support, and a library of culturally relevant books. Students participating in this program can apply to become apprentices at oneils barbershop and line4line, providing youth with a paid career-building experience. In 2021 line4line began a mentoring program grounded in the practice of reciprocity where young people can be heard and supported. This small format program pairs our barbers with middle/high school/ alternative students for activities and outings providing opportunities to build a support network.in 2021 line4line began work to develop a mobile outreach program to provides free haircuts for reading, books, hands on creative activities as well as academic and social/emotional support. This program will operate as a free pop-up camp during the summer and will participate in community events throughout the year. Educational outreach - in addition to providing free haircuts for reading in the east baton rouge parish public and charter schools, line4line attends school events and in 2021 brought 2800 diversity focused books into 54 local elementary schools. This project was made possible by the conscious kid organization to promote conversations around race, racism and resistance and to create greater access to bipoc books within baton rouge. Partners for this project included the east baton rouge parish school system; east baton rouge parish public library and knock knock childrens museum. Details on this project can be found at https://line4linebr.org/book-program/. Partnership - in 2020 line4line joined forces with humanities amped, big buddy and front yard bikes as the angel coalition to establish the youth city lab, with the goal of creating a full service youth program facility in mid-city providing young people with access to a variety of out-of- school programs under one roof. The group is currently raising funds to renovate a historic church on government street with the plans of opening for programming in summer 2021.”

“Prior period adjustment -226”