The Children’s Book Bank is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization created to encourage family reading and to better prepare children for school by placing carefully selected bundles of books into the hands and homes of children in low-income households. The Children's Book Bank collects, repairs, and packages used books. The books are then made available to families in need - free of charge. The independent organization is administrated by Dani Swope and is located in Portland, Oregon.
One of the biggest obstacles to literacy is the scarcity of books in the home. In fact, two thirds of low-income families own no books for their children. Since early exposure to books is so important to developing prerequisite literacy skills and since strong reading skills correlate so highly with later school success, The Children's Book Bank is working throughout Portland to collect tens of thousands of books to give to pre-school children of low-income families.
The Children's Book Bank seeks to encourage family reading in low-income households. Research has shown that adults with low literacy levels can improve their own reading skills as well as that of the children through active family reading. One of the goals is to help break the cycle of poor literacy which often plagues low-income families, generation after generation.
The Children’s Book Bank is committed to being a source for free "read aloud" books for tutors' students and their families. Literacy tutors may apply for a book grant to give a bag of children's books to a student and his/her children for the purpose of enriching the teaching, learning, and reading environments. The Children's Book Bank hopes that the books will be used both in tutoring sessions and at home where students can practice their reading skills by reading aloud to their children. Tutors are also encouraged to file a six month book bank survey after working with a specific family for that amount of time.
If you are interested in donating or volunteering at the Children's Book Bank please contact Dani Swope at danis@childrensbookbank.org. You can learn more by visiting the Children's Book Bank website.
