United Way Provides Books for All Our Kin Providers and Families

Overall, research shows that access to books correlates with a child's success in school, work, and life.

That's why United Way of Coastal Fairfield County recently donated 360 books to the All Our Kin home-based child care network in Bridgeport.

The goal is to give providers and families the tools to promote development of early language and pre-reading skills, so that children enter kindergarten ready to learn.

Experts note that early literacy begins well before children enter school. It begins from infancy when children hear and play with sounds, develop vocabulary, gain awareness of books and print, and understand stories. And books have an added benefit: they are a gateway to positive shared experiences between caregivers and children that promote healthy emotional development.

To provide the books, United Way partnered with Read To Grow, a Connecticut non-profit that promotes language building and literacy for children beginning at birth.