The strength of our community is the engine that drives us forward, together.
“The servant-leader is servant first … That person is sharply different from one who is leader first, perhaps because of the need to assuage an unusual power drive or to acquire material possessions.”
Robert K. Greenleaf
Every year AC looks to our local communities in Oregon and Washington and the organizations creating positive changes. This winter we had the pleasure of partnering with The Children’s Book Bank:
“The Children’s Book Bank is dedicated to advancing early childhood literacy through the power of books. Since 2008, we have organized thousands of community volunteers to clean, sort, and bundle new and used books to send into the homes of over 95,000 children in need. We recently celebrated an important milestone by giving away our 1,000,000th book to a Portland Public Schools Head Start student!”
“The books we distribute include books donated from the community, as well as culturally inclusive books purchased through our A Story Like Mine initiative. In 2015, The Children’s Book Bank launched A Story Like Mine to prioritize including books with diverse representation in our book bundles to better meet the needs of the children and families we serve.”
“We know through experience, and studies confirm, that children and families engage more with books when they can see themselves reflected in the pages they read and when they have access to books in their home language. When books are readily available at home, children spend more time reading—with their parents or on their own—and developing the literacy skills needed to succeed in school.”
“The development of early literacy skills through experiences with books and stories is directly linked to a child’s success in learning to read. This leads to improved education for all students, higher literacy and graduation rates, and stronger communities.”
AC as a team donated, cleaned, and repaired over 100 books in one day across our locations in OR and WA. We look forward to the next 100!
You can donate books or funds directly to the Children’s Book Bank here:
The Children’s Book Bank
Learn more about AC’s Community effort here:
AC Community