Literacy - A Head Start Family Tradition
Bobbie Shay, Social Services and Parent Involvement Specialist, North Central West Virginia Head Start, Fairmont, West VirginiaOne of Head Start's goals is to promote and support family literacy. Through a coordinated local effort and a lot of hard work, Head Start families in a Lancaster, Kentucky, community have benefited immeasurably from this goal.
The Community Action Head Start program in North Central West Virginia, in conjunction with the Christian Appalachian Project (CAP) in Lancaster, has coordinated a book distribution for Head Start families for a third year in a row.
Thousands of new paperback books were donated by CAP. The Head Start program distributed them to various organizations in a 10 county area. Those benefiting from the book distribution included schools, literacy programs, libraries, domestic violence and homeless shelters, and other non-profit organizations. The Taylor County Public Library was able to provide a book to each elementary school child in the public schools. A college student on a limited budget was grateful to find a book that was required for school because he would have had to purchase the book had it not been for the book distribution. Head Start centers added some of the books to their Parent Lending Libraries.
The book distribution also provides an opportunity for families to attend book fairs and other community activities.