Mayor Bloomberg and a number of city and elected officials gathered at the Bronx Library Center on Kingsbridge Road last week to launch the first effort of the city’s “Young Men’s Initiative,” a $127 million multi-agency program unveiled this summer to address the disparities faced by the city’s young black and Latino men.

The first leg of the initiative will focus on improving youth reading skills, the mayor announced last week, with $3 million funneled to the expansion of the Young Adult Literacy Program, which works with 16 to 24 year olds who read between the fourth and eighth grade levels.

The program, founded in 2008, will now be offered at 17 sites across the city and will nearly double the number of participants to an estimated 1,000 young people this year.

“The importance of education — of knowing how to read — cannot be overstated,” Bloomberg said. “We launched the Young Men’s Initiative to help more young men fulfill their potential. The Young Adult Literacy Program reaches out to our most disconnected young men and our most vulnerable populations and gets them back on the track to a high school diploma, a job and the hope of a better tomorrow.”

In Bronx School District 10, which includes all of the Norwood News’ coverage area, only 33 percent of elementary and high school students passed last year’s state English Language Arts exam.

“The importance of basic literacy cannot be exaggerated,” said Bronx State Sen. Gustavo Rivera, who attended last week’s event. “It’s the best place to start when you’re dealing with the achievement gap.”

In addition to the Bronx Library Center, the Young Adult Literacy Program will now operate at the Mott Haven and West Farms branch libraries, as well at the Highbridge Community Life Center and the nonprofit BronxWorks.