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Books for Babies{short description of image}

Address
Box 1090
Pincher Creek, AB T0K 1W0
Tel: (403) 627-4478
Fax: (403) 627-5065
Email: kmday@canuck.com
Contact Person
  • Anne Elle, Friends of the Literacy Society
Partnerships
  • Family and Community Support Services, Public Library, Chinook Health Region Public Health Nurse
Goals of the Project
  • To encourage nurturing of the child through touch, hugs, voice, visual and emotive, all factors associated with sharing a book with baby.
Project Description
The purpose of Book for Babies is to encourage reading with and nurturing of babies right from birth. The project encourages parents to hold the baby, while talking and sharing a book that is age and culture appropriate. This project is staffed by a volunteer coordinator who organizes the book bags and delivers them to Public Health Nurses. The nurses then give the bags to new parents at the second home visit, when time may be available, in an effort to emphasize the importance of reading to the child. The bookbag, suitable for long term library use, contains two books and a membership card for the newborn (for one year) to the Pincher Creek and District Municipal Public Library.

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Books for Babies{short description of image}

Address
Prospects Literacy Association
9913 - 108th Avenue
Edmonton, AB T5H 1A5
Tel: (403) 421-7323
Fax: (403) 421-7324
Email: readme@telusplanet.net
Contact Person
  • Maureen Sanders
Partnership
  • Alberta Family and Social Services, Junior League of Edmonton
Goals of the Project
  • To make books and reading an important part of children's lives from birth on;
  • To assist parents in supporting children's early language and literacy development;
  • To draw parents into our other literacy programs using the book bags as the first contact, thereby providing practical and social support for children's literacy development.
Project Description
This project began in June 1996 and will be implemented for three years. Book bags, containing four or five books, are distributed through health centres to low income parents of newborns. Follow-up is done by mentor volunteers who help parents gain access to other literacy programs.

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Books for Babies, and Books for Babies (serving County of Lethbridge){short description of image}

Address
County of Lethbridge Literacy Program
1920 - 17th Street
Coaldale, AB T1M 1M1
Tel: (403) 345-3160
Fax: (403) 345-1311
Contact Person
  • Sheelagh Matthews, Coordinator
Partnerships
  • Sponsored by the County of Lethbridge Community Learning Council
  • Year One Funders - Lethbridge Community Foundation, B. Macabee's Booksellers
  • Chinook Arch Regional Library System, Fanny's Fabrics
  • Fineprints Screen Printing, Paramount Printers Ltd.
  • Pioneer promotions Ltd., Save-on-Foods, Textile Outfitters (Calgary)
  • Public Health Nurses of Chinook Health Region
Goals of the Project
  • To recognize, celebrate and support parents as their children's first teachers;
  • To increase parental awareness of their influences on their children's attitudes towards literacy and learning;
  • To promote shared reading between parents and children;
  • To improve shared reading between parents and children;
  • To improve the literacy skills, attitudes, values and behaviours of both parents and their children.
Project Description
Research conducted by the Family Literacy Action Group found that the age group birth to five was omitted from any government funding in education. In other words, preschool children and their parents with literacy concerns are being neglected due to a lack of funding. Books for Babies is a family literacy program based on the fact that . . the early childhood years (birth to five) are the critical years in a child's development, and that parents and/or guardians need support in becoming more effective "first" teachers. Books for Babies support parents and/or guardians by providing them with the tools to start off in the rewarding activity of reading, a Books for Babies set. Each Books for Babies set is comprised of a light canvas book bag suitable for the child's future use at the library or in play, an appropriate board book for the baby, a captivating picture book for the parents/guardians to read to the infant or to older siblings, a bookmark, material on ways to foster and support emerging literacy development, reading tips for the entire family, information on literacy programs available in the community (adult, family, and English as a Second Language), a list of agencies for high-risk families in need of assistance, and, of course, sponsor acknowledgments. The Books for Babies sets are given out at the baby's four month visit to the Public Health Nurse. For those babies who do not receive inoculation shots, separate arrangements are made to receive a Books for Babies set. Books for Babies sets are provided to all newborns residing in the City of Lethbridge and the County of Lethbridge. That means about 1450 babies per year are reached.
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