What is the Business Alliance for Youth Literacy (BAYL)?

EROC Business Alliance for Youth Literacy is a Corporate Social Responsibility Initiative

The Mission: To mobilize the power of the business community to improve youth literacy by investing in evidence-based tutoring programs, fostering strategic partnerships, and championing educational equity across Orange County.

By using an "Adopt-a-Site" corporate sponsorship model, we pair Orange County businesses with literacy program sites across the county.

School districts across Orange County are facing unprecedented budget cuts, threatening vital literacy programs when our community needs them most. 79% of Orange County's 42,000English Language Learners failed to meet 3rd-grade reading standards in 2023. Without immediate community intervention, another generation of children will fall behind, perpetuating cycles of educational inequality and limiting our future workforce.

Parentis Foundation operates the Empowering Readers OC program, a proven literacy initiative providing evidence-based tutoring to elementary students across Orange County. BAYL was created to extend this mission into the business community, forming a strategic alliance of companies committed to strengthening education, building workforce readiness, and ensuring no child falls behind simply because of their zip code. 

Through BAYL’s Adopt-a-Site model, businesses can make a measurable investment in education while ensuring the next generation of workers has the foundational literacy skills to thrive. Each sponsored Empowering Readers OC program site includes: 
 
- Twice-weekly, one-on-one tutoring for students in grades 1–5 
- Trained volunteer mentors (age 50+) providing intergenerational support 
- Family engagement events that extend impact beyond the classroom