Article Contributed on: 9/29/2006 12:02:27 PM
For more than six years I have served as a volunteer for the Arapahoe Library District's Begin with Books program, which I believe to be a worthy contender for YourHub.com's community grant consideration.
Begin with Books is a library program designed to encourage preschool children to experience the joy of language and reading. Working with parents, local agencies and daycare providers, Begin with Books provides a variety of language experiences to help lay the foundation of pre-reading skills that will help them to become good readers. Begin with Books is divided into several groups - including childcare, English as a Second Language and the jail program, which happens to be the program I volunteer for.
The Arapahoe Library District's Outreach Services department provides library services for the Arapahoe County Jail. Through the Begin with Books program, books are provided to inmates at the Arapahoe County Detention Center to send to their children, siblings, nieces, nephews, grandchildren and more along with a personal note. The importance of brain development, reading aloud, and conversation with children from birth until five years is discussed with these parents. They are also given the opportunity to have themselves videotaped reading a story to their children, which is mailed with the book to the children.
I feel encouraged by volunteering my time at the jail. Not only am I able to support literacy for the children who are affected by an incarceration, but I am helping to encourage the inmates to become more influential parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, grandparents and more. Many inmates report that our program is the only contact they may have with the children in their lives. Participants use the program to reach out to their children by asking them about their interests so that an appropriate book can serve as a tangible reminder of those adults who they care for and who are currently inaccessible.
A book that I always share with the inmates during my visit is the children's story The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs as Told by A. Wolf, by Jon Scieszka. The story is appropriate because it gives a voice to those individuals who society may have given up on because of a past indiscretion. I believe it is important to give these individuals and the ones they love opportunity to express themselves through books - certainly a benefit of the Begin with Books program.
Thank you for your consideration for this award!
Marilyn Miller, Volunteer, Arapahoe Library District Begin with Books Program