Feel Good Friday - First Book

I'm going to spend the next few Feel Good Fridays highlighting organizations that are helping people during the pandemic, starting with First Book.

Founded in 1992, First Book is "a nonprofit social enterprise that provides new books, learning materials and other essentials to children in need." They do this because they believe education is the best path out of poverty.

Why books? "Books and resources have been shown to have a positive relationship with interest in reading, academic and writing performance, and language development." You'll find a more detailed breakdown of the need and benefit of books at this link.

First Book's model is designed to address the systemic causes of educational inequality and their programs reflect this. You can watch this short video of First Book in action or keep reading.

The First Book member network consists of 475,000 educators who exclusively serve kids in need. First Book provides these educators with no and low-cost books and educational materials for children ages 0 - 18 to help them be successful in school and life. If you're a teacher, check the eligibility requirements and register for membership here. Over 1,000 educators join the network each week.

First Book also provides research and insights for their member network to use. Recent reports focused on barriers to learning, stress and anxiety in the classroom, and social and emotional learning. Their Community Connect program matches nonprofit organizations with local classrooms serving children in need so that available resources, like flu shots and food, go to communities that need them most.

First Book currently reaches an average of 5 million children every year and supports one out of every three classrooms and programs in need. Since their founding in 1992, First Book has distributed over 185 million books and educational resources in over 30 countries!

If you'd like to support the work of First Book there are many ways you can take action, including making a donation and sharing the social media love by liking their Facebook page, following them on Twitter @FirstBook and tagging your posts with #bookstokids.