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| Greater Hartford |
| Literacy Council |
| One Union Place |
| Hartford, CT 06103 |
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(860) 522- 7323
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(860) 522- READ |
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Facts About the Need for Books
Literacy programs are often operating with limited funds and staffing. Their efforts must be focused on meeting the growing demand for services, leaving little time for fundraising for books. While working with providers and other stakeholders to address literacy on many fronts, the Literacy Council has also identified the need to assist literacy programs by providing books related to their services/curricula and to build the home libraries of struggling readers.
Studies show that creating a literacy rich environment in the home is vital to developing strong literacy skills and that as many as 61% of low-income families have no books at all in their homes for their children. Children from low-income families across the region need your help to fill their home libraries with books that will encourage a love of reading. According to our survey of 30 programs, 65,000 books are needed for low-income children and families in the region currently receiving services in these settings:
- Pre-school programs
- After school programs
- Childcare programs
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- Elementary school classrooms
- Family Literacy programs
- Summer programs
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"Of the 161 children who started the program, 15% reported not having books in their room at home. It is likely that for these children, the books we gave them through the GHLC's First Book may have been the only books in their home this summer." 2005 Mid-grant report, Village for Families and Children, Inc
Related Statistics and Studies
- An analysis of a national data set of nearly 100,000 United States schoolchildren found that access to printed materials - and not poverty - is the "critical variable affecting reading acquisition" (McQuillan, 1998).
- Approximately 300,000 Greater Hartford adults, or roughly 41% of the adult population, are functioning below the literacy skill level needed to succeed in today's economy and society (based on the U.S. Department of Education's 1998 National Adult Literacy Survey).
- Throughout the Greater Hartford region, well over half of tenth grade students performed below the state goal on the Connecticut Academic Performance Test in reading. For example, in Hartford 88% were below state goal, in Bloomfield 83%, in New Britain 79%, and in Windsor 78%. Likewise, more than half of the state's fourth graders did not meet proficiency goals in language arts (CT Department of Education 2004/2005).
- Studies show that as many as 61% of low-income families have no books at all in their homes for their children. While low-income children have - on average - roughly four children's books in their homes, a team of researchers have concluded that nearly two thirds of the low-income families they studied owned no books for their children. (Reading Literacy in the United States, 1996)
- One recent report funded by the Packard and MacArthur Foundations found that the average child growing up in a middle class family has been exposed to 1,000 to 1,700 hours of one-on-one picture book reading before entering school. The average child growing up in a low-income family, however, has only been exposed to 25 hours of one-on-one reading during this same time period.
- According to the Literacy Council's Need for Books Survey of area literacy programs, more than 65,000 books for infants through adults are needed to meet the demand in 30 area programs.
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