Although Book Harvest’s Book Babies team can’t visit families in person right now, that doesn’t mean they’re not keeping in touch, shared Ginger Young, the Durham-based organization’s founder and executive director.
Launched in Durham County in 2013, this groundbreaking evidence-informed home visiting program provides 20 new age-appropriate books to participating children every year starting at birth, ensuring that they have a home library of more than 100 books by the time they start kindergarten. Home visitors from Book Babies partner with the parents of 376 enrolled children ages 0 to 5 in two locations in North Carolina: Durham County and Forsyth County. Together, Book Babies parents and home visitors set literacy goals for each enrolled child, mark their progress as they prepare for school, and help ensure that the entire family starts kindergarten ready to learn.
These collaborative activities have always taken place in families’ living rooms and at their kitchen tables. But in March, as concerns about the coronavirus began to spread across the country, Young and her Book Babies colleagues realized that they needed to find another way to provide their services.