Region recruiting for free book distributors

Good reads available to groups serving low-income families

Don’t judge a book by its cover. Just because something appears too good to be true, doesn’t mean it’s so, says Sandra Noel.

The Niagara Region children’s services manager has been working with First Book Canada (FBC) since November to provide free books to children in the community.

And now, she’s hoping to recruit other organizations to do the same.

Noel has partnered with Karen Schmidt, of the West Niagara Adult Learning Centre in Beamsville, to spread word of the program intended to improve literacy rates and encouraging reading at an early age.

FBC works with more than 90 publishing companies to provide new, overstock books at no cost to groups that serve low-income families.

The charitable organization has been having difficulty getting Niagara agencies on board.

Noel believes it could be from lack of exposure for the program locally or that groups simply feel there’s “got to be a catch” to the free-book initiative.

“We are really trying to get that message out to individuals that, yes, it sounds too good to be true, but it is the real deal.”

To raise awareness and set the record straight, Noel will host an open house in the atrium of regional headquarters Sept. 8., also International Literacy Day, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

It will be an opportunity to explain the ins and outs of the program, answer any questions and to help people register, she said.

Noel and Schmidt have committed to getting 100 new program members signed up to be distributors of the free children’s books, though they’d like to surpass that target.

First Book Canada only requires that registering agencies serve a clientele made up of at least 70 per cent low-income individuals.

“That’s the only caveat,” Noel said, adding many groups “don’t recognize they’re serving a much higher level of low income than they’re aware of.”

More than one person from an organization can register.

For instance, individual teachers within a school can register so they can hand out books to children in their classrooms, Noel said. Case workers within social assistance offices can also register so they have books to hand out to children who come in with their parents for meetings.

If that 100-member mark is met, which Noel is confident it will be, FBC will host a Books on Wheels event at regional headquarters in mid-October.

“They show up with tens of thousands of brand new books and basically everyone (who registered) gets an allotment,” Noel said.

At the last event she attended in Mississauga, there were 53,000 books up for grabs.

There’s potential for the Niagara event to become a regular occurrence if demand is present.

Noel said the program has been well received in the Region’s children’s services department since books began going out the door in May.

“We had a client call one of the caseworkers just to tell them that their daughter hasn’t stopped sleeping with her book since we gave it to her.”

About 1,500 of the 3,000 books the Region has received thus far have been handed out.

Noel urged organizations that have questions or require further information to come out to the open house or e-mail her at sandra.noel@niagararegion.ca.

To register, visit www.firstbookcanada. org/receive-books.