When Fanboy Comics is not providing you with the latest in geek news and entertainment, the FBC staff hopes to offer our readers a myriad of opportunities to give back to the community. We love reading comics, watching movies, and playing video games, but we are never happier than when we are able to help others in need. With Geeks Care: How You Can Help, FBC will provide you a variety of causes that would greatly appreciate your time.
As many parents and children heading back to school this week, the importance of childhood education is on the minds of many. For this reason, this week’s installment of Geeks Care: How You Can Help will highlight the great work being done by the folks at Raising A Reader, a non-profit organization that engages families through literacy. With programs available across the United States, Raising A Reader offers tangible opportunities and solutions for families and education agencies to develop, practice, and sustain home literacy routines. Likewise, the widespread availability of the organization provides you with an even greater opportunity to learn how you can help!
Since 1999, Raising A Reader has helped families of children aged 0-8 to develop, practice, and maintain home-based literacy routines critical for school success. Through a network of more than 2,500 community partners (school systems, libraries, community agencies, and others) across 33 states and Washington, D.C., they have helped more than one million families build and sustain reading routines in their homes, with special attention to those at highest risk for educational failure. Through Raising A Readers various programs, parents receive training in how to develop the habit of sharing books with their children, high-quality books are rotated into the home on a weekly basis for families to practice regular book sharing, and families are connected to the local library in order to sustain book-borrowing and book-sharing practices.
In addition, each local chapter of Raising A Reader can be quite active in their respective communities, as staff members from the California branches will be attending Long Beach Comic Con on September 27 and 28, 2014, while members of the Tampa, FL, branch will be hosting a Raising A Reader Institute from September 29-30 for those interested in learning more about the available programs and approaches to early childhood education and literacy.
For those interested in lending support to Raising A Reader (for which there are a variety of ways to give back), readers may visit the organization’s “Get Involved” page on their official website.
If you have a volunteer opportunity or an important cause that could use the assistance of a few geeks, please email the details to barbra (at) fanboycomics.net.
