Storybook Connection

For every person who goes to jail, there is a family and a community left behind.  How do the children left behind fare?  Many of these children experience poverty, the effects of substance abuse, and family instability.  These impacts are strongly associated with low exposure to reading, limited positive interactive relationships, and lack of access to books. It’s time to bring these forgotten children out of the shadows using books and reading.

REadingADvantage, Inc., a non-profit, has developed a unique program to help children stay connected to their parents who are incarcerated.  Our program is “Story Connection.”  With “Story Connection,” we have partnered with the “Parenting Inside Out Program” at the West County Detention Facility in Contra Costa County.  We share with incarcerated parents the power of reading to their children and how it can help them to stay connected in their children’s lives.  We record each parent reading a children’s story.  We hope to develop the child’s relationship with their incarcerated parent by hearing their parent’s voice through the recording of a much-loved story.

We need your help! Our recordable book inventory is almost depleted. To continue connecting incarcerated parents with their children, we need to raise funds to purchase more recordable books.  We hope you will join us in reaching these children and letting them know we have not forgotten them.