Give a Kid a Book will address the issues regarding literacy in poverty stricken communities by personally distributing age appropriate books to children in the communities. With these actions, the volunteers of Give a Kid a Book feel that they will promote literacy, provide reading materials in home environments, and encourage parent involvement with reading at home and with his/her child/children. According to the Reading Across the Nation: A Chart book, P. 87, 2007 “In New York, 48% of the young Children are reported to be read daily, close to the national average and ranking 28th in the nation. The early childhood population of New York is 51.7% white (Non-Hispanic), 17.2% Black (Non-Hispanic), and 22.6% Hispanic. Nearly 40% children age five and under are in or near poverty (36.6%). Daily reading varies by income level from 42.3% of children living at or below 200% Federal Poverty level (F.P.L.) to 58.9% children at 400% F.P.L. or above. Reading also varies by race/ethnicity with 58.1% of the white (Non-Hispanic) children read to daily compared with 37.8% of the Non-white children. Among fourth graders, 34% are proficient or above in reading, ranking 17th in the nation. New York has a ration of young children to public libraries that is close to the national average ranking 36th in the nation…” www.reachoutandread.org/download/RORCharbook_StatebyStateNarratives.pdf

Give a Kid a Book is designed to promote literacy amongst young children. The targeted ages of recipients are between 1 – 8 years old. The goal is to collect and purchase 5000 book between July 2008 and October 2008. Once the books are collected, counted, stamped and sorted, the volunteers will be strategically placed in different communities as they randomly give kids age appropriate books. The philosophy is that youth will be encouraged to read and excited that they were given reading materials by peers closely to their age. Volunteers will give books to any children (aged 1-8) whether they are walking down the street or simply standing at a bus stop with parents. We believe that this community service project will not only promote literacy, it will also bring young people together to work towards a common good. This community service project will also strengthen the communities by allowing the residents, politicians, local businesses and community service organizations to become directly involved in a project that is recognized, developed, implemented by the young people in the community that are passionate and excited with reading.

Thus far, we at Give a Kid a Book has successfully applied and established an Employee Identification Number (EIN) through the Internal Revenue Services. This EIN number will be used to open a donation account at a Bank of America. The title of this account will be “Give a Kid a Book”. The donation account will allow supporters to donate monies to our community service project so that we can purchase books and other needed materials. On July 23, 2008, Ms. Jaydah and Aniyah Curry have an appointment to meet with City Councilman McMah to promote our community service project and ask for support. In addition, Ms. Jaydah and Aniyah Curry have spoken with two Directors for the New York City Parks and Recreation department in regards to this community service project. Both Directors agreed to house a large box in the lobby (with a “Give a Kid a Book” logo or Flyer) in efforts to collect books for the project. Because the project is fairly new, we have not encountered any problems.

Business owners, community service organizations, local politicians and volunteers can help by collecting books that are age appropriate and donating the books to Give a Kid a Book. In addition, money can be deposited into the established donation account that is housed through Bank of America. The title of this account is “Give a Kid a Book”. Monies collected through this account will be used to purchase books and other materials needed to bring this community service project into existence. In addition, volunteers can help by participating in the distribution process when books are given to children.