Program areas at Book Harvest
Early literacy programs - early literacy and pre-k/k partners with families through the Book babies program to nurture their children's early language and literacy skills. An evidence-informed home visiting partnership, Book babies provides support to enrolled families that begins when a baby is born and is sustained over five years. Book babies builds rich relationships and provides families with the information and resources they need to develop the foundation for their children's school readiness and school success. In 2023, 280 families with babies and young children were enrolled in Book babies. Enrolled families received a total of 7,103 books; a total of 542 literacy coaching home visits were made to these families by Book babies literacy coaches on Book Harvest staff.
Book abundance - Book Harvest's Book abundance portfolio includes its Book ownership and community wide literacy programs. This work strives to create a culture of literacy by ensuring that there are an abundance of equitable opportunities for children to Harvest free,culturally inclusive books wherever families go, helping them build home libraries and a robust home literacy environment. Books are provided throughout the community with 37 Book boxes, 7 laundromats, and 16 community bookshelves. Book Harvest's family space is open to the public for storytimes and free books. The organization also hosts two large-scale community events annually: dream big on mlk day and the summer block party. In 2023, 158,273 books were provided to the community through these efforts.
School engagement - books on break, one of Book Harvest's school engagement programs, provided 33 public elementary schools in durham, orange, bladen and columbus counties, and 2 pre-k programs in guilford county with books to send home with students before summer to help them sustain their learning gains and spark a love of reading. In sum, 14,208 students selected 70,389 books.