A network of education and youth groups in the area hope to promote reading and literacy in general with a Literacy Festival to be held Nov. 21 at the Coachella Public Library.

The theme of the event — “Planting Words, Harvesting Futures”— is aimed at making connections between reading and wider opportunities for valley youths and their families, organizers said.

“We get kids in here (who) don't' want to read,” said Sue Duran, library technician at the Coachella library. “You open a book, and there's an adventure in there. I want them to have that inspiration to read. Books are the thing, they show you there are other ways.”

The event is a public launch for the Coachella Valley Literacy Network, a group started by the University of California, Riverside's Palm Desert Graduate Center as a way to address the valley's low language scores and college attendance rates, said Toni Lawrence, outreach director for the school.

Less than a third of the Coachella Valley's 11th-graders rated as proficient in language skills on state tests.

The valley's language proficiency scores for 11th-graders come in at about 29 percent, compared to 40 percent statewide, according to figures compiled by the literacy network. Meanwhile, valley drop-out rates are 21.5 percent compared to 20.1 percent statewide.

“There are all these people doing different literacy efforts in the valley, but they weren't sharing information; they weren't sharing needs,” Lawrence said. “It's a more coordinated effort.”

The festival will include readings of poems and stories by participants in teen reading groups, music, workshops for parents on reading at home and free books for children and adults, said Arlene Cano, a coordinator of teen reading groups for the Riverside County Public Library System.

“‘Planting Words, Harvesting Futures,' it plays along with the farm culture (in the east valley),” Cano said, referring to the festival's theme. “It starts with the festival and it's cultivated with books; it is cultivated with love of reading. Our goal is to give away books.”

The network also wanted to showcase the valley's public libraries as places where children and adults can find books and other materials that reflect their personal interests.

“Reading something that interests you really accelerates your reading ability,” said Chauncey Veatch, a member of the literacy network, who teaches in the Coachella Valley Unified School District.

“If (people) are exposed to what's available, how easy it can be to use our community libraries, then they are more likely to pursue it on their own.”

K Kaufmann covers Palm Desert for The Desert Sun. She can be reached at k.kaufmann@thedesertsun.com or (760) 778-4622.