Date

Mr. William Smith

OakCity Community Foundation

111 Olive Ave.

Smithville, PA

Dear Mr. Smith,

It was very nice talking with you last week. I am so pleased that you and the Oak City Community Foundation understand the importance of early childhood literacy. As we discussed, studies show conclusively that children who enter kindergarten without having had experience with books enter less prepared than other children and sadly many never catch up.

The Friends of the Oak City Public Library have a plan to ensure that all our children get the head start they need to be successful in school. Our organization is over 25 years old and we work within the community to support literacy in its broadest sense through our support of the Oak City Public Library.

With your support, we will partner with the OakCityGeneralHospital to implement a “Books for Babies” program that will ensure every child born in our town gets a book that is appropriate for babies. Knowing that the book alone isn’t sufficient to ensure a family habit of reading, we will provide new parents with kits that include information on the importance of reading to childrenand on how to read to babies, a “baby’s first library card” that can be exchanged for the real thing, and information on the free materials and services available at the Oak City Public Library.

As you will see from the proposal I am including for your consideration, we can give the precious gift of reading to all our newest residents for a very small investment! I am hopeful that you’ll give this proposal every consideration and join us in giving the dream of 100% literacy in our town a real chance of success through this early childhood literacy initiative.

I will contact you in a few weeks to discuss this proposal and provide you with any other information you might need to ensure its success.

Sincerely yours,

Beverly Adams, PresidentRuth S. Pindes, RN

Friends of the OakCity Public LibraryMaternity Supervisor

333-123-1234OakCityGeneralHospital

333-987-6543

The Proposal

The Friends of the Oak City Public Library will work with OakCityGeneralHospital over the course of the following year to ensure that each new baby born in OakCity gets a new board book. In addition, a kit of materials will be developed for new parents telling them the importance of reading to their babies, tips on how to read to their baby, information on the Oak City Public Library so they can borrow books to continue to read to their baby, and “baby’s first library card” that can be exchanged for the real thing at the library. Friends’ volunteers and hospital staff will personally hand out the Books for Babies kits and reinforce to the new parents the importance of reading to their babies and how to do it.

The Need

According to America Reads Challenge, children who enter kindergarten without a book-rich environment enter far behind children who have books in their homes. Children who lag behind at the beginning of formal education are likely to stay behind throughout their school years.[1]

In OakCity, too many children will be starting school with a terrible handicap. Thirty-two percent of our children live in poverty and studies show that families in poverty read less and do less well in school.[2] While we may not be able to solve the problem of poverty in our town in the near future, we can help these and other children enter school on an equal footing with those who come from more enriched backgrounds

Many children in our community live in homes where there are nobooks. Though our public library reports that nearly 65% of the community uses the library at least once a year, they estimate that less than half of the parents with children ages 0-5 borrow children’s books. Unless a good many of these parents are buying books for their children, it is safe to assume that many do not have children’s books in their home.

We can change that. This project will ensure that next year 100% of OakCity’snew families will have at least one children’s book in their home. The beauty of this program, however, is that our reach doesn’t stop there. With materials that tell new parents about the critical importance of reading to their babyand where they can continue to get books for free (the library!), we can begin to make reading a top priority for every family in town. As a final important component, we will ensure that either a Friends volunteer or a maternity staff member spends some time with new parents to reinforce the importance of books for babies.

Implementation

  • The Friends of the Oak City Public Library will purchase 500 “Books for Babies” kits sufficient to meet the estimated number of births per year in our town.
  • The Friends of the Oak City Public Library will work with the Youth Services Coordinator at the library to develop materials to insert in the kits that tell about the library’s services for new parents and babies, lists other books for babies that the library has, and gives contact information for the library.
  • The Friends of the Oak City Public Library will work with maternity staff at the OakCityGeneralHospital to store and disseminate the kits throughout the year to new parents in the hospital.
  • The Friends of the Oak City Public Library will work with the library’s Youth Services Staff to develop a press release about this project to send to the local newspaper, to include in the library’s newsletter and the hospital’s newsletter, and to send to the local radio and television stations. In addition, the Oak City Public Library will highlight the program on their website.
  • The Friends of the Oak City Public Library will make quarterly calls to the hospital to ensure kits are regularly disseminated and to replenish supplies as needed.
  • The Friends of the Oak City Public Library will contact the library’s Youth Services Coordinator on a quarterly basis to find out how many of the “baby’s first library cards” included in the kits have been redeemed for a real library card.

Evaluation

The success of this project will be measured both by qualitative measures and quantitative measures. The Friends of the Oak City Public Library will contact the hospital on a quarterly basis to talk to the nurses and health care providers in the maternity ward to determine from them their impression about the reception of the program and advice on reading by the new parents.

In addition, the Friends of the Oak City Public Library will receive quarterly reports from the Youth Services Coordinator at the library that tells how many parents came in to exchange the “Baby’s First Library Card” in the kit with a real library card. The Coordinator will also give a summary report that assesses how well the program is being received by new parents who come into the library and whether more children’s books are being borrowed by them.

Qualifications of Grant Leaders

The Friends of the Oak City Public Library was founded in 1987. The group mission is to support the library through fundraising, grant writing, and public awareness activities.

Beverly Adams, President of the Oak City Public Library will be the project manager. Ms. Adams has been an active member of the Friends of the Oak City Library for nearly ten years. Prior to her retirement in 2014, Ms. Adams was the Marketing Director of the Godfrey Insurance Company. She has had over 25 years experience coordinating partnership projects of all types and generating publicity and goodwill for those projects. She can be reached at:

1420 W. Main

333-123-1234.

Ruth S. Pindes, RN has been the maternity supervisor at the Oak City General Hospital since 2008. Prior to that time, Ms. Pindes worked for OakCity as the director of Public Health. Ms. Pindes understands the critical link between literacy and health and is committed to sharing the importance of that link with all new parents.

Randy Mosel has been the Youth Services Coordinator at the Oak City Public Library since 2002. Mr. Mosel received his master’s degree in library science in 1991 and has been working with children and literacy ever since. Mr. Mosel’s column, “From the Beginning,” appears each month in the state library association’s annual newsletter. This column reviews and recommends reading for new parents.

Budget

Direct Support

Item / Cost Per Unit / Quantity / Total Cost
Kits (including 2 brochures on how and why to read to your baby, baby's first library card, board book for baby, Babies Love Books paperback picture book on parents and children reading together, bookmark on titles for further reading). / $7.00 / 500 / $3,500
Optional insert for grant recognition, to be supplied by grantor. / 500
Total Direct Support Requested / $3,500

In-Kind Support

Task / Cost Per Hour / Total Cost
Work with hospital to set up implementation plans, tour hospital,talk to maternity staff about coaching new mothers to readto their babies. / 15hrs @ $10/hr / $150
Deliver kits 12 times per year to hospital. / 24 hours @ $10/hr / $240
Stuff kits with library information & sponsor information. / 10 hours @ $10/hr / $100
Develop press releases (including photos) and send tolocal papers, library & hospital newsletters, others. / 10 hrs @ $15/hr / $150
Total In-Kind Support / $640

[1]

[2] esp. pp 11-13.

An Uneven Start: Indicators of Inequality in School Readiness, by Richard J. Coley, March 2002