Family Literacy

Literacy impacts a wide range of social issues from poverty rates to rates of employment, incarceration rates, and health care costs. Low literacy is correlated with low educational attainment, employment challenges, and low income. About 43 percent of adults with the lowest levels of literacy also live in poverty. And the impact is generational. Low-income families tend to have fewer books in the home—one of the main risk factors for lower literacy attainment. A child’s literacy begins with their parents. A mother’s education level is the greatest determinant of her children’s future academic success, outweighing other factors like family income. (NIH) A Packard and MacArthur Foundation report found that the average child in a middle class family has been exposed to 1,000 to 1,700 hours of one-on-one picture book reading. By contrast, the average child growing up in a low-income family has only been exposed to 25 hours of one-on-one reading.

LVK is making a difference in our community by disributing books through the Augusta Food Bank, suppling the Little Libraries in our communities and partnering with other community members to promote StoryWalks in the community. LVK is a strong advocate for opportunities to get books into the hands of families and children who might otherwise have limited access to books.