UNITED WAY OF SUMMIT COUNTY HELPS FIRST BOOK PROMOTE LITERACY

United Way of Summit County has approved a $10,000 Development Fund Grant for First Book-Greater Akron to provide new books for area children through literacy programs and human service agencies.

“Many children from low-income families in the Akron area have little or no access to books. With the generous support of United Way of Summit County, First Book-Greater Akron is working to put new books into the hands of children in need,” says Chuck Bell, advisory board chair, First Book-Greater Akron.

“United Way of Summit County is pleased to support the efforts of First Book-Greater Akron to help end illiteracy in our communities,” said Lois Foster, vice president, Community Impact, United Way of Summit County.

First Book-Greater Akron is part of a national network of volunteer-led advisory boards that provide new books to children in need in communities across the country. Comprised of volunteers from all sectors of the community, First Book-Greater Akron works to promote and facilitate the distribution of new books to children through literacy programs in the Akron area.

“In order for our children to love reading and learning, they need to have access to books,” says Bell. “With this grant, more children in Akron will receive more books to take home and keep.”

Access to books is essential to reading development. More than 60 percent of low-income families have no books in their homes for children. By providing children from low-income families with books that they can take home and keep, First Book targets the only variable that correlates significantly with reading scores, the number of books in the home.

Since its founding in 2005, First Book-Greater Akron has distributed more than 10,000 books to more than 800 Akron-area children of low-income families participating in such programs as Boys and Girls Clubs, Open M, ACCESS Inc. and YMCA. For more information or to get involved with First Book-Greater Akron, please contact Chuck Bell, advisory board chair, at 330-607-6481.

United Way of Summit County improves lives by mobilizing community assets for health and human services. For more information, call 330-762-7601, visit our website at http://www.uwsummit.org/ , or write to us at United Way of Summit County, 90 N. Prospect St., P.O. Box 1260, Akron, Ohio 44309-1260.

About First Book
First Book is an international nonprofit organization with a single mission: to give children from low-income families the opportunity to read and own their first new books. In neighborhoods across the country, First Book Advisory Boards unite leaders from all sectors of the community to provide books to children in literacy programs, shelters for battered children, housing project initiatives, soup kitchens, after-school programs and other community-based efforts reaching children living at or below the poverty line. Since its inception in 1992, First Book has distributed over 45 million new books to children in need in hundreds of communities nationwide. For more information about First Book, or to make a donation to help children in need, please visit http://www.firstbook.org/.