Community and family focused agencies selected to receive Coretta Scott King Book Donation Grants

For Immediate Release
Mon, 04/07/2014

Contact:

John L. Amundsen

Program Officer, Outreach and Communications

ALA Office for Literacy and Outreach Services

(312) 280-2140

jamundsen@ala.org

CHICAGO – Tubman in Minneapolis, Hope House in Washington, D.C. and Abode Services in Fremont, Calif. have been selected to receive the 2014 Coretta Scott King Book Donation Grants.

Awarded each spring by the Coretta Scott King Book Awards Committee, the grant program donates books originally submitted for consideration for the Coretta Scott King Book Awards to three organizations to enhance collections. Three libraries are selected from a field of dozens of applicants that demonstrate need and potential benefit from receiving the collection. All three winners will receive more than 100 titles submitted to the 2014 Coretta Scott King Book Awards, including a full set of the year’s winner and honor titles.

Tubman, a multi-service agency, provides family crisis and support services in the Minneapolis area, including family violence shelter and transitional housing, legal services, mental and chemical health counseling, elder care resources, youth programming and community education. Tubman is Minnesota’s largest provider of domestic violence services, serving 832 children and youth in its shelter and transitional housing programs.

“Books considered for the Coretta Scott King Book Awards, representing some of the best children’s books written and illustrated by African Americans, would be exciting additions to our collection,” said Tamara Stark, director of youth and family services at Tubman. “Seeing characters that reflect themselves and ‘meeting’ authors and illustrators from their community reinforces their inherent potential and can create a reading experience that helps tap this potential well into their future.”

Hope House in Washington, D.C. is a nonprofit organization that serves children whose fathers are in prison. Established in 1998, the organization aims to strengthen families by improving the bonds between children and their fathers imprisoned far from home. Hope House’s outreach has expanded from one prison to 13 in Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, West Virginia, California and the District of Columbia.

“Through our work, we strengthen children’s sense of self and belonging, to help them have a more positive belief in their future,” said Carol Fennelly, Hope House executive director. “The Coretta Scott King book will make this experience that much deeper and richer.”

Abode Services of Fremont, Calif. works to end homelessness in the Bay Area. Abode’s children’s program provides special support and services, including assessment and referrals, parenting classes and support, respite and enrichment activities for children. In Alameda County, Abode’s largest service area, more than 4,200 people are homeless on a given night, with a quarter of those people being families with children under 18.

“Abode Services helps children regain the chance to enjoy childhood and to build the sense of self-worth and self-esteem that can be all too easily destroyed by homelessness and poverty,” said Sheryl Thomas, Abode’s director of social services. “A generous donation of books from the Coretta Scott King Book Awards will support our goal of helping these children grow toward a better and more hopeful future in the face of tremendous adversity.”

The Coretta Scott King Book Awards are presented annually by the Coretta Scott King Book Awards Committee of the American Library Association’s Ethnic and Multicultural Information Exchange Round Table (EMIERT) to encourage the artistic expression of the African-American experience through literature and the graphic arts. To learn more about the Coretta Scott King Book Donation Grant, please visit www.ala.org/csk.