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Funding for WHTJ’s FIRST BOOK Program is generously provided by Whole Foods Market, Better Living Foundation, Union Bank & Trust, and individual donors. |
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Did you have a favorite book as a child, one that you wanted to read over and over again? If you did, you clearly understand the magic that books can bring to a child’s life. Unfortunately, 61 percent of low-income families in America have no children’s books in their homes and some of those families are right here in the greater Charlottesville area. To help ensure that every child discovers the joy of reading, WHTJ Charlottesville PBS launched the Charlottesville Area FIRST BOOK Program. Through FIRST BOOK, WHTJ and its FIRST BOOK Local Advisory Board provide new books to local children who might not have the chance to own them. Through a grant process, WHTJ’s FIRST BOOK Local Advisory Board selects area literacy programs and distributes books to each student for their personal ownership several times a year. These books serve as the beginning of a home library and are often extensions of the curriculum used in their school programs. To qualify for a grant, applicants must be a tutoring, mentoring or family literacy program that works with disadvantaged children in the City of Charlottesville and/or the counties of Albemarle, Fluvanna, Greene, Louisa, Madison, Nelson and Orange. For more information, contact us at 434.295.7671 or FIRST BOOK is a national nonprofit organization with a single mission: to provide low-income children with their first new books. In neighborhoods across the country, FIRST BOOK Local 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 below the poverty line.
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