ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, March 29, 1997 TAG: 9703310018
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-5 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: TOM ANGLEBERGER
Literacy Volunteers of America - New River Valley will be giving away free books to families in need next week and encouraging parents to read to their children as part of "Family Literacy Week."
The organization, which provides confidential, free literacy and English tutoring in the New River Valley, is asking families to join in a valleywide effort to promote literacy in the next generation by reading together every day.
Literacy Volunteers will kick off its two family literacy initiatives - "Reading with Children" and "Beginning with Books" during Family Literacy Week.
"Reading with Children" teaches parents who have difficulty reading themselves how and why to read with their children. "Beginning with Books" will provide 500 at-risk families with four free children's books, educational information, free literacy services and incentives to utilize the local library.
"Through these initiatives, we aim to break the intergenerational cycle of illiteracy," said local literacy director Linda Jilk.
"There are about 26,000 adults in the New River Valley with less than a ninth-grade education and more than 50,000 adults without a high school diploma," she said. "Even sadder is the fact that low literacy tends to be passed on from generation to generation, creating an ongoing cycle of educational disadvantage, poverty and dependence.
Children who grow up in an environment of books and reading tend to become good readers, Jilk said, while those who grow up without family support for reading do not.
Packets of books will be assembled by the Beta Sigma Phi service sorority of Radford University and distributed to social service agencies.
LENGTH: Short : 40 linesby CNB