2025 – With this grant, we will be able to make an even larger impact on early childhood literacy by continuing to build home libraries for the majority of children we have reached.
Our goal is to help children in these ways:
1. The two books provided to each child may be the first they have ever owned. This will reinforce and enrich their school’s reading programs. Children will have books that are both windows and mirrors to boost self-confidence, curiosity, and empathy.
2. Being read to and practicing reading at home can become a habit that allows for more success in school. As children grow, learning to enjoy spare time reading reduces the lure of negative peer pressure and offers glimpses of other times, places, lives, and cultures outside of the child’s direct experience.
3. Siblings seeing these gains are second-hand beneficiaries, and they learn by seeing participants’ in-home reading and life skills behaviors. Future classmates and teachers will benefit, as the whole group can move forward at a more consistent pace due to stronger reading skills.
4. Self-esteem and critical thinking skills reduce the risk of losing interest in school and create youth who are more inclined to find work that fits their wider interests and stronger skills, thus making greater contributions to their community. This benefits all of us.
2025 – The funds requested would allow the NHDC to have a great presence in the community and support the part-time director.
2024 – funding will be granted to fortify New Hanover County’s ability to respond to disasters in the future.