Courtesy: The Greater Augusta Partnership for Literacy
The Greater Augusta Partnership for Literacy(GAPL) is proud to announce a coordinated sign-up effort with the Columbia County Public Libraries. The Main Library on Evans Town Center, the Euchee Creek Library in Grovetown and the Harlem Branch in Harlem all have sign up brochures for children between the age of birth and four and a half.
The Greater Augusta Partnership for Literacy (Ferst Foundation’s local representation) began sending books to children in Richmond & Columbia Counties in January 2010. Since that time GAPL has mailed over 3,200 books to over 250 children in Richmond and Columbia Counties. Ferst Foundation for Childhood Literacy is a 501 (c)3 non-profit organization that is the official replicator of Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library for the state of Georgia. Ferst Foundation sends a book a month along with a Leap into Books newsletter to every registered child in a participating community.
The program may start small, but the goal is to provide a free book to every child in the community who is 5 years or younger. There are approximately 25,000 children in this demographic; and when we reach 20% of them, we believe that we will start making an impact in the schools.
The GAPL, the group that operates the program locally, raises the money to provide the free age appropriate books, register families with children under age 5 and promote awareness of the program. How much money is needed? The program can send a book to a child’s home for $3 a month. Thus, it would cost $36 a year to send a book a month to a child. If you wanted to sponsor a child from birth to age 5, it would cost $180. That’s small change compared to the need and the benefits that these books would have if received in every home.
Consider these facts:
- 61 percent of low-income families don’t have a single book in the home suitable for a child.
- A third of our children begin school unprepared to learn.
- Parents are four times more likely to read aloud to their children when given free books and encouragement
- This program develops the habit of parent and child interaction that continues throughout the educational career of the child.
Ultimately, this program will help prepare our children before they ever enter the school system. But, the program has more benefits than just school readiness. Children in the program have demonstrated more proclivity to read at 3rd grade levels by the end of 3rd grade. If you accomplish that, you are more inclined to graduate from high school. Higher graduation rates have a significant economic impact on the community.
GAPL wants everyone in the community to hear more about this program. Businesses, civic organizations, churches, other groups and individuals will be asked to support the program with money, volunteer time and by spreading the word about it. We hope there will be unified support throughout the community. This is one of those programs that can make a difference. We need to get books into the homes of all our children, no matter what income level. It’s so important to the successful future of our children and to the entire community. Please visit your Public Libraries to sign up your children and make a donation to the program. To learn more about the program, please contact Chuck LaMarsh at lamarshcb@yahoo.com or Tera Cochran at tera@ferstfoundation.org or 706-438-4755.
Please visit them on the web at: www.facebook.com/pages/Greater-Augusta-Partnership-for-Literacy/142485322754