Send Us First Book Stories. First Book is seeking powerful stories about the impact new books are making for children in need across the country. We are hoping these stories will help us court new funding partners, enabling us to provide even more books to children in need. These potential funding partners are looking for specific first-person stories that describe the overwhelming poverty in a child’s life being combated with access to new books - provided by First Book. We are also looking for stories about First Book’s dramatic impact on an entire program that has received a grant from your Advisory Board. Some questions to consider:
1. How would a program that has received a grant from your Advisory Board describe the resources available to them prior to working with First Book?
2. Can you tell us about the impact receiving a book from First Book made on one child in particular?
3. How has the program’s structure or curriculum changed since receiving books from First Book?
4. Have you witnessed any home relationships change as a result of First Book?
In sharing these stories with our partners, we’d need the permission to print your name, the name of the person in the story, their title, the organization’s name and their city and state. We would also like your permission to print the first name and age of any child you mention in a story. These might go up online, be included in proposals, and will be shared with a variety of partners.
An example of a great story from Kelly at Book Buddies in California:
“The flu season was approaching and Book Buddies was participating in flu shot clinics in downtown Los Angeles. Shots were being given at mobile medical stations in the Skid Row district and we were giving books to children. One little boy bravely took his shot and happily accepted his book and ran back to his parents. A few minutes later he came back and rolled up his sleeve again. When I told him he already had his shot – he said, “I know – but can I have another so I can get the Barbie book with stickers for my little sister?” We laughed and gave him the extra book, no shot required.”
Stories can be just a few sentences or up to 500 words and should be sent via email to: help@firstbook.org. We’ll be collecting these for the next few months, but would like to get an initial round of proposal stories out within the next week. It would be great if you could share with us your thoughts in the next few days, but we’d always love to hear from you and appreciate any time you might have to help!
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