KC dads read to kids - Post your photos
Kansas City dads read to kids.
That's the goal of a new reading outreach effort organized by Turn the Page KC, the Kansas City Public Library to encourage reading between male adults and children.
Men are asked to share pictures of themselves reading to children on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram using the hashtag #DadsTurnThePage.
The effort is being launched with a video involving men reading to children in urban barbershops which have agreed to provide free books to children.
Books for the new outreach effort were provided by the Kansas City Public Library, which has been a major community champion for expanded reading opportunities.
Download the poster - English - Spanish
The new initiative is being launched by Kansas City Mayor Sly James, who is a strong advocate of children reading and chairs the non-profit Turn the Page KC.
Organizers hope to expand the barbershop initiative to more Kansas City locations. If interested, contact Julie Holland or Mike English.
To support and sustain this effort, Turn the Page KC is conducting an online virtual book drive. Every $10 donation will purchase four books to support the barbershop outreach.
The goal is to raise $2,500, which would purchase an additional 1,000 books.
Other community efforts like Reach Out & Read work to get books in the offices of pediatricians and family physicians. The group has "prescribed" over 850,000 books to Kansas City area children since 1997.
A major international study has shown that the number of books at home can predict academic achievement, particularly for low-income families.
“One of the things that is most striking to us about it is that the book’s effect appears to be even larger and more important for children from very disadvantaged homes,” researcher Mariah Evans said on a recent KCUR interview.
Evans shared her research at a Kansas City Library event