BooksforBatonRouge.com

Books for Baton Rouge

Books for Baton Rouge is a non profit organization based in Baton Rouge, LA and created by Baton Rouge Moms.  Our mission is to promote literacy and life-long learning by distributing donated new and used books to organizations serving disadvantaged children and teens in the Baton Rouge area.

Learning to read is critical to a child’s success – both in school and in life. Literacy is one of the best predictors of a child’s future success. In some of the lowest-income neighborhoods in the country there is only one book available for every 300 children.

10 Literacy Facts:

1. Two-thirds of students who cannot read proficiently by the end of 4th grade will end up in jail or on welfare. Over 70 percent of America’s inmates cannot read above a 4th grade level.
2. 1 in 4 children in America grow up without learning how to read.
3. 61 percent of low-income families have no age appropriate books in their homes for their children.
   
4. As of 2011, America was the only free-market OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) country where the current generation was less well educated than the previous.
5. Literacy is a learned skill. Illiteracy is passed down from parents who can neither read nor write.
6. Nearly 85 percent of the juveniles who face trial in the juvenile court system are functionally illiterate, proving that there is a close relationship between illiteracy and crime. More than 60 percent of all inmates are functionally illiterate
7. 75 percent of Americans who receive food stamps perform at the lowest 2 levels of literacy, and 90 percent of high school dropouts are on welfare.
8. Teenage girls ages 16 to 19 who live at or below the poverty level and have below average literacy skills are 6 times more likely to have children out of wedlock than the girls their age who can read proficiently.
9. Some 42 percent of American children — more than 31 million — grow up in families that lack the income to cover basic needs like rent, child care, food and transportation.
10. Reports show that low literacy directly costs the healthcare industry over $70 million every year

Sources: Huffington Post, Begin to Read, RIF, SCI Learn, First Book