Building a Foundation with Book Vending
Donation protected
Our country is currently suffering from a national crisis, and I am not talking about Covid-19.
A disease spread among adults, children, and the elderly which has existed for many generations - illiteracy.
If you can read this, you should consider yourself lucky.
Have you ever thought about what your life would be like without the basic ability to read?
As elementary as it may sound, reading is an ability that we as humans use in our daily lives, having a vast impact on skills such as writing or studying.
Illiteracy affects 21 percent of America's adult population and 34 percent of children causing serious and vast damage to an individual's emotional and intellectual development and limiting an individual’s ability to achieve an accomplished adult life.
One out of six high school students drops out of school every year due to illiteracy. That’s 1.2 million teens.
In economically disadvantaged communities, 80 percent of children lose reading skills due to the lack of access to materials. Regarding ethnicity, African-American fourth-graders show the highest percentage of illiteracy at 52 percent, followed by Hispanic fourth-graders at 45 percent, and lastly, white students at 23 percent.
My name is Nakeyia Jones. Originally from the Bronx in New York, I currently live in Chicago and have traveled all over the country trying to spread awareness about a skill most may take for granted, but one that’s crippling our nation as a whole.
The ability to read.
As a writer and a businesswoman whose goal is to help her community, I came up with an idea I truly believe can change people’s lives. To build book vending machines, placed all over the country, available at airports, libraries, schools, and public places with a variety of publications, from adult novels to children's books.
You might have already seen such machines in airports, but here is a fact that you may not know. None of them offer children's books. With the addition of children’s books to these types of machines, we will be encouraging our younger generation to improve their academic scope, and in the long run, helping them with their future and even possibly preventing them from dropping out of school.
By funding my project, you'd be helping me provide aid to young students, children, the future of our country, that are unable to access these types of resources to make their future goals a success.
My battle is against illiteracy. A disease that has spread over the entire country. By encouraging children to read, we’d be improving our community's quality of life and bringing equality to these economically disadvantaged communities. This project would improve reading skills, boost academic performance, and close the gap between low test scores in inner-city schools.
Reading to a child improves concentration, encourages imagination, strengthens parent/child relationships, and gets children excited about reading.
I believe inner-city children would be more interested in reading if they had diverse books, with distinct characters, that not only look like them but have experienced similar life situations.
The time is now to begin teaching our children in their foundational years, and building literacy as a lifelong skill they can use to achieve their goals.
I believe we can do it. What’s more, I know we can. One vending machine at a time.
I will have 2 custom machines built at $1700 a piece and fill with diverse books from authors. I will begin in Chicago, and spread a positive light with all the negative things that children face daily.
A disease spread among adults, children, and the elderly which has existed for many generations - illiteracy.
If you can read this, you should consider yourself lucky.
Have you ever thought about what your life would be like without the basic ability to read?
As elementary as it may sound, reading is an ability that we as humans use in our daily lives, having a vast impact on skills such as writing or studying.
Illiteracy affects 21 percent of America's adult population and 34 percent of children causing serious and vast damage to an individual's emotional and intellectual development and limiting an individual’s ability to achieve an accomplished adult life.
One out of six high school students drops out of school every year due to illiteracy. That’s 1.2 million teens.
In economically disadvantaged communities, 80 percent of children lose reading skills due to the lack of access to materials. Regarding ethnicity, African-American fourth-graders show the highest percentage of illiteracy at 52 percent, followed by Hispanic fourth-graders at 45 percent, and lastly, white students at 23 percent.
My name is Nakeyia Jones. Originally from the Bronx in New York, I currently live in Chicago and have traveled all over the country trying to spread awareness about a skill most may take for granted, but one that’s crippling our nation as a whole.
The ability to read.
As a writer and a businesswoman whose goal is to help her community, I came up with an idea I truly believe can change people’s lives. To build book vending machines, placed all over the country, available at airports, libraries, schools, and public places with a variety of publications, from adult novels to children's books.
You might have already seen such machines in airports, but here is a fact that you may not know. None of them offer children's books. With the addition of children’s books to these types of machines, we will be encouraging our younger generation to improve their academic scope, and in the long run, helping them with their future and even possibly preventing them from dropping out of school.
By funding my project, you'd be helping me provide aid to young students, children, the future of our country, that are unable to access these types of resources to make their future goals a success.
My battle is against illiteracy. A disease that has spread over the entire country. By encouraging children to read, we’d be improving our community's quality of life and bringing equality to these economically disadvantaged communities. This project would improve reading skills, boost academic performance, and close the gap between low test scores in inner-city schools.
Reading to a child improves concentration, encourages imagination, strengthens parent/child relationships, and gets children excited about reading.
I believe inner-city children would be more interested in reading if they had diverse books, with distinct characters, that not only look like them but have experienced similar life situations.
The time is now to begin teaching our children in their foundational years, and building literacy as a lifelong skill they can use to achieve their goals.
I believe we can do it. What’s more, I know we can. One vending machine at a time.
I will have 2 custom machines built at $1700 a piece and fill with diverse books from authors. I will begin in Chicago, and spread a positive light with all the negative things that children face daily.
Organizer
Nakeyia JONES
Organizer
Chicago, IL
