How family needs informed an early literacy family reading program in multilingual and multicultural Miami-Dade County.

This article focuses on how multilingual and multicultural families’ input shaped the design of The Children’s Trust Book Club, a county-level early literacy program in Miami-Dade County, Florida, aimed at children from birth to age five. Through eight focus groups with 92 caregivers representing Hispanic/Latinx, English-speaking Black, and Haitian families, the study identified key needs including access to bilingual and culturally representative books—especially in Spanish and Haitian Creole—and parent psychoeducational materials that support multilingual literacy development. Caregivers emphasized barriers such as limited time, lack of books in home languages, and misconceptions about reading abilities, while highlighting trusted community sources like pediatricians and schools for outreach. The findings underscore the importance of culturally and linguistically responsive literacy programs that incorporate family voices to effectively support early childhood literacy in diverse, high-need communities.