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Barrow Literacy Partnership
In March 2022, the Barrow Book Partnership merged with the Community Literacy Alliance to pursue our common goals of promoting early literacy in Birth-Age 5 children and enhancing family engagement, while nurturing the love of reading for a lifetime. We’re proud to now be the Barrow Literacy Partnership! With this merger, BLP will be able to provide even more age appropriate books to additional target populations across the county, while simultaneously educating families about the wealth of free resources, books, and programs in Barrow’s three public libraries in Auburn, Statham and Winder.
The goal of the Barrow Literacy Partnership (BLP) early literacy program is to improve a child’s learning foundation by better equipping parents and caregivers as their child’s first teacher. The parternship's dual approach provides free, age-appropriate books to keep at home for target populations of young children and also provides public library information to encourage families to sign up for the free materials and services at Barrow’s three public libraries in Auburn, Statham and Winder.
A tremendous bonus in this change is the additional funding and support from the Barrow County School System’s L4GA Grant (Literacy for Learning, Leading and Living) from the Georgia Department of Education. With the established partnerships for the former Barrow Book Partnership (2016-2022), we now begin an exciting chapter in the shaping the learning foundations of our community’s future leaders and workforce. Be on the lookout for more exciting news!
Another large component of BLP is the ongoing need for book drives to supply gently used young children’s books to the waiting room "Book Nooks" at the Barrow Health Department, Barrow Department of Family and Children Services, Medlink Winder and Barrow Pediatrics, so siblings may also take free book home to keep.
Target populations served are: the Women-Infant-Children’s (WIC) program at the Barrow County Health Department; BCSS children in Child Find, Pre-K Lottery registrants, and Kindergarten & Pre-K registrants; and Barrow County children in foster care. Birthday books and literacy information are given to families with young children at Medlink Winder and Barrow Pediatrics. BLP communicates via quarterly Newsletters and active social media accounts to provide ongoing language nutrition. Partnering agencies also provide additional information from the Barrow Community Foundation Inc., Adult Literacy Barrow, the Winder Housing Authority, Barrow Family Connection, and Project Free.
From June to September 2022, the Barrow Literacy Partnership partnered with the Barrow ...
More Information about BLP
For more information or to host a book drive, contact Ellen Petree at ellen.petree@barrow.k12.ga.us or 770-867-4527. Book donations may be dropped off in the lobby of the BCSS Central Office at 179 W. Athens Street in Winder. Tax-deductible monetary donations can be made to the Barrow Community Foundation Inc. designated for Barrow Literacy Partnership.
Feeding Barrow
Feeding Barrow became a collaborative program between the Barrow County School System and three partner agencies (New Path 1010, Nothing But the Truth and the Food Bank of NEGA) to provide weekend sacks of kid-friendly food to children, K-12, who do not have enough to eat from Fridays to Sundays. Read more about the program and how you can help.
Mentoring
(Collaborative Partnership)
A program that has proven to be a powerful connection between community and school is the Mentor Program. Community members have the opportunity to share experiences and knowledge with students. The influence and guidance of a mentor can make a positive difference in a child’s life. Typically, close to 400 volunteers spend an hour of their time each week one-on-one with a student helping to teach valuable social skills, assist with homework or just be a “listening friend."
Purposity
We are partners with a program called Purposity - an app founded on the principle that people find purpose in generosity.
REACH Georgia
(Collaborative Partnership)
The mission of REACH Georgia is to provide Georgia’s academically promising students with academic, social and financial support needed to graduate from high school and college prepared for work. It is a mentoring and scholarship program designed to encourage students, starting in middle school, to pursue their educational goals and dreams. 100% of funds raised goes to college scholarships. University partnerships are matching and double matching the public and privately funded college scholarships. The University of Georgia, Georgia Southern University, Georgia State University, Georgia Tech Institute of Technology, and Mercer University are all currently double matching the $10,000 scholarship awarded upon high school graduation.
- More about BCSS and REACH Georgia
- Contact Barbie Kulp for more information.
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