At First Book, we like to say that we add “rocket fuel” to local programs of all kinds. That is to say, we work with programs that reach children in need all across the country and help them get the resources they need to carry out their critical missions.
Our friend Jonathan Strausberg of Jewish Women International (JWI) recently shared some of his experiences with the group’s National Library Initiative, a program intended to establish 100 children’s libraries in homeless and battered women’s shelters across the United States.
The impact that books can have on the children who find themselves in these shelters is profound. As Strausberg (who shares our belief in the transformative power of books) writes: “For the children who live in domestic violence shelters, they need this relief and inspiration more than anyone else. They’ve been traumatized during the most formative time in their life. They need to feel normal, they deserve it.”
First Book has worked with JWI on the library project for years; many of the books that line the shelves of these libraries come from the First Book Marketplace. This is only a fraction of the immense effort made by heroic groups like the JWI all over the world, but it’s one that we’re proud to be a part of.